Cayman Islands Geography
Overview
The Cayman Islands are located in the western Caribbean Sea. They are the peaks of a massive underwater ridge, known as the Cayman Trench, standing 8,000 feet (2,400 m) from the sea floor, which barely exceeds the surface. The islands lie in the northwest of the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba and west of Jamaica. They are situated about 400 miles (650 km) south of Miami, 180 miles (300 km) south of Cuba, and 195 miles (315 km) northwest of Jamaica. Grand Cayman is by far the biggest, with an area of 76 square miles (197 km2). The two "Sister Islands" of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are located about 80 miles (130 km) east of Grand Cayman and have areas of 14 square miles (36 km2) and 10 square miles (25.9 km2) respectively.
The Cayman Islands have a land area of 259 km2 (101.2 square miles), roughly 1.5 times the size of Washington, D.C. and about 3 km2 larger than Saint Kitts and Nevis. The Caymans have a coastline of 160 km (99 km), which makes it a wonderful destination to enjoy beaches, snorkeling and scuba diving. The Cayman Islands make a maritime claim of a 200-nautical mile exclusive fishing zone and a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles.
All three islands were formed by large coral heads covering submerged ice age peaks of western extensions of the Cuban Sierra Maestra range and are mostly flat. One notable exception to this is The Bluff on Cayman Brac's eastern part, which rises to 140 feet (42.6 m) above sea level, the highest point on the island.
The Islands' lowest elevation is the Caribbean Sea at sea level. The highest point is The Bluff, a limestone outcrop 43 m (141 feet) high on the eastern end of eastern Cayman Brac, which itself was named for The Bluff-brac is Gaelic for "bluff."
Source: Wikipedia