Lesser Antilles

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The Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees,<ref name=MW>"West Indies." Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. 2001. (ISBN 0877795460) Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., p. 1298.</ref> are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas and Greater Antilles form the West Indies. They are a long chain of islands, most of which wrap around the eastern end of the Caribbean Sea on the western boundary with the Atlantic Ocean, and some of which lie on the southern fringe of the sea just north of South America. The Lesser Antilles more or less coincide with the outer edge of the Caribbean Plate, and many of the islands were formed by subduction, as one or more other plates slipped under the Caribbean Plate.

[edit] Regional terminology

The Lesser Antilles can be divided into the Windward Islands in the south and the Leeward Islands in the north. (The prevailing winds in the region blow from south to north, thus hitting the Windward Islands first; the Leeward Islands, though on the Atlantic side of the chain, are more sheltered.) The Leeward Antilles arc are the southern Lesser Antilles just north of Venezuela in South America. In turn, the Netherlands Antilles are divided into the groups in the southwest and the northeast, with different naming conventions.