Trinidad and Tobago Is Hiding Something Nobody Talks About

Trinidad and Tobago is hiding something nobody talks about, and it isn’t buried in the Pitch Lake. Two islands under one flag, just twenty miles apart, made of two completely different worlds. Trinidad is a corner of South America, built from a continent’s mud. Tobago is a fragment of an ancient volcanic island chain, carried here from far to the west. And the boundary between those worlds runs straight through the middle of Trinidad, creeping a little over half an inch every year. 30 facts, counting down. From Columbus naming the Trinity Hills in 1498 and finding the mouth of the Orinoco, to the Baltic colony on Tobago and the Main Ridge rainforest protected in 1776. From howler monkeys, oilbirds and the scarlet ibis of Caroni Swamp, to Pitch Lake, the asphalt lake that paved the streets of New York. From the 1857 oil well near La Brea and the steelpan born from oil drums, to the morning the Piparo mud volcano erupted in 1997. And by number one, you’ll see how almost all of it traces back to one thing still happening under Trinidad and Tobago right now. 📍 Are you Trini or Tobagonian, or is your family? Tell us in the comments which village or town you’re from. 🔔 Subscribe to Beneath the Islands for more places that are hiding something. Sources: Higgins et al. – Strain Partitioning Along the Caribbean–South American Transform Plate Boundary (Tectonics) Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, Trinidad and Tobago – Tectonic history and oil industry timeline University of the West Indies – Piparo mud volcano eruption, 1997 USGS – Volcano Watch: the truth about mud volcanoes Neill et al. – Island arc rocks of Tobago and Caribbean plate tectonics (Cardiff University) Guinness World Records – Largest tar pit (Pitch Lake) #TrinidadAndTobago #Trinidad #Tobago #Caribbean #Geography