Trinidad and Tobago: Physical Geography

Trinidad and Tobago is a twin-island republic in the southern Caribbean, situated just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and marking the southeasternmost point of the Lesser Antilles chain. Trinidad, the larger of the two islands, accounts for roughly 94 percent of the country's total land area of about 5,128 square kilometers, while Tobago, lying some 30 kilometers to the northeast, makes up the remainder. Several smaller islands, including Monos, Huevos, and Little Tobago, round out the archipelago.

Trinidad's landscape is shaped by three roughly parallel mountain ranges that continue the coastal cordillera of Venezuela. The Northern Range, an extension of the Andes, rises to the country's highest point, El Cerro del Aripo, at 940 meters. The lower Central Range reaches only about 325 meters and gives way to swampy lowlands, while the Southern Range, home to the Trinity Hills and the noted Pitch Lake asphalt deposit, tops out near 305 meters. Between the Northern and Central ranges lies the fertile, alluvial Caroni Plain, drained by the Caroni and Ortoire rivers, the island's longest waterways.

Tobago's terrain is dominated by the forested Main Ridge, a volcanic but no-longer-active formation running the length of the island to elevations of about 550 meters, with fertile valleys descending to its north and south coasts and a coral platform at its southwestern tip. Geologically, Trinidad sits on the continental shelf of South America, of which it was once physically a part, while Tobago belongs to a separate, older island arc tied to the Caribbean Plate; the Gulf of Paria and the narrow straits of the Bocas del Dragón and Serpent's Mouth separate the islands from the mainland.