Cayos Arcas
| Cayos Arcas | ||
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| Waters | Gulf of Mexico | |
| Geographical location | 20 ° 12 ′ N , 91 ° 58 ′ W | |
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| Number of islands | 3 | |
| Main island | Cayo del Centro | |
| Total land area | 0.228 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
The Cayos Arcas are three small sandy cays belonging to Mexico in the Gulf of Mexico 130 kilometers off the coast west of Campeche and 300 kilometers southwest of the Arrecife Alacranes atoll , on the outer western edge of the Campeche Bank . Their total area is 22.8 hectares. They belong to the municipality of Champotón in the state of Campeche .
The Cayos Arcas lie on a three to four square kilometer platform of shallow water. The islands on the reef enclose a small lagoon. In the surrounding area, the seabed drops to a depth of 40 meters.
The main island is Cayo del Centro with a size of 13.7 hectares, which is sparsely overgrown with grass. Bushes and a few small clusters of palm trees are also present. There is a pair of beacons on the cay. Cayo del Este is 5.2 hectares and 3 meters high; it is located on a reef 0.5 km southeast of Cayo del Centro. Cayo del Oeste measures 3.9 hectares and is 2 m high, it is located on a small reef about 1.3 km west of the southern tip of Cayo del Centro.
The chain of islands is uninhabited and has no infrastructure other than the beacons on Cayo del Centro. The vegetation on the islands consists of sparse grasses and shrubs. The islands serve as a navigation aid. Cayos Arcas Terminal, an extensive chain of oil stations on the Arcas Reef, is located south of the islands. They are currently among the largest oil producers in the Gulf.
The Arcas chain was often the target of military operations in the Gulf during the 19th century. A Republic of Texas naval flotilla briefly occupied the island during the Yucatán Rebellion. During the American Civil War , the famous Confederate sailing ship Alabama used the hidden island chain as a retreat to await the next operations in the Gulf.
Web links
- The Cayos Arcas on GulfBase.org
- Campeche Bank Reefs on Oceandots ( Memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Terence M. Farrell, Christopher F. D'Elia, Lawrence Lubbers III and Lawrence Pastor Jr .: Hermatypic Coral Diversity and Reef Zonation at Cayos Arcas, Campeche, Gulf of Mexico, Atoll Research Bulletin No. 270, September 1983 (PDF; 1.6 MB)
- ↑ http://msi.nga.mil/MSISiteContent/StaticFiles/NAV_PUBS/SD/Pub148/Pub148bk.pdf
- ↑ Superficie Continental e Insular del Territorio Nacional ( Memento of August 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )