Talk:Geography of the United States Virgin Islands

Climate chart transcription errors

The climate chart in this article disagrees in some entries with the one in United States Virgin Islands#Climate, although they both refer to the same things; and both of them differ in some entries compared to the current chart in their mutual source, weather.com. If someone knows how to replace the charts efficiently with the current weather.com chart, could you please do that? If no one has done so in maybe a week or so, I will go ahead and do it by hand, datum by datum (which is the only way I know how to do it). Duoduoduo (talk) 16:49, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

Volcanic rock on shores of St. Croix

In the section on statistics, under terrain, this article says "Most of the islands, including Saint Thomas and Saint John, are volcanic in origin and are mostly hilly to rugged and mountainous with little level land. Saint Croix was formed by a coral reef and is flatter." But (OR) I observe that there is plenty of volcanic rock along the shores of St. Croix. Why is this -- was St. Croix also partly volcanically formed? Duoduoduo (talk) 16:19, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

According to the NOAA, "St Croix was never volcanic and resulted from an up-thrust of the ocean floor". So I've put a dubious tag on the assertion that it was formed by a coral reef. Duoduoduo (talk) 22:54, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

The website link provided by NOAA also has incorrect information. NOAA's site says "The Puerto Rico Trench (which reaches a depth of greater than 8 km – the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean) separates the island of St. Croix from the remainder of the Virgin Islands. The islands north of the Puerto Rico Trench, all of which are of volcanic origin, were formed by the subduction of one tectonic plate beneath another." The Puerto Rico Trench lies north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The Anagada Trough is what separates St. Croix from the other Virgin Islands. See bathymetric image of the Puerto Rico Trench, the Anegada Trough, and their relation to the Virgin Islands: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=puerto+rico+trench&id=03E566D4A4307BBD90B4B30F4E77D0E8096B9973&FORM=IQFRBA#view=detail&id=0EF2245A59F1B882CBD639EBC69B1480DE797646&selectedIndex=5 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.100.227.152 (talk) 12:46, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

I removed the claim that St. Croix was formed by a coral reef. Although I can find print references stating this, none of them are from geologists, and they are likely over-simplifications.

The Puerto Rico Trench is definitely north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The trough between St.Croix and the other Virgin Islands is the Virgin Islands Trough (maybe considered part of the Anegada Trough?). See for example: http://books.google.com/books/about/Seafloor_Environments_North_St_Croix_Mar.html?id=MWactgAACAAJ: "The Virgin Islands Trough (VIT) is a deep (4500 meters (m)), elongate basin bounded on its north and south sides by steep fault escarpments. The south escarpment forms the north submarine slope of St. Croix Island and has an average gradient of 18-23 degrees, although local gradients vary between 5-47 degrees." and http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4020-6847-8_8#page-2: "The deepest part of the Virgin Islands Trough that separates St. Thomas and St. John from St. Croix is 4,200m." -- Gruepig (talk) 17:38, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Better map?

The satellite image is not very clear. I was unable to find a better image with a quick search. Can someone find a better satellite or topographical map? -- Gruepig (talk) 17:42, 6 September 2013 (UTC)