Barbados - The Scotland District of Barbados

Barbados is about 32 km long and 23 km across at its widest dimension. The island is characterized by several distinctive and in parts unique geological, geographical, biological, as well as cultural features, most of which are located in the Scotland District. The first peculiarity is the location of the entire island of Barbados, which stands in isolation in front of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. Furthermore, all those islands consist essentially of volcanic rocks, yet Barbados does not have a volcano but instead has a base of sedimentary rocks that are covered by terraces of carbonate rocks. Barbados also has an amazing array of sedimentary rock formations and structural geological features, including mud diapirs, the largest of which is in the subsurface of the Scotland District. The highest elevation of Barbados is Mount Hillaby in the Scotland District, 340 m above sea level. Although small by comparison to some of the volcanoes in the islands of the Lesser Antilles, Mount Hillaby, and with it the Scotland District of Barbados, is the summit of an elongated submarine mountain range that is several hundreds km long, extending from Trinidad to about Puerto Rico. The Scotland District is the only location in the entire Caribbean where this mountain range is above water.