ATLANTIC ISLANDS

The Atlantic Ocean region extends from the North Pole to the South Pole between the Americas to the east and Europe to the west. The islands within it range from Svarlbard, Jan Mayen Island, Greenland and Iceland in the north to South Georgia and The Falkland Islands in the south. In between are Ascension and St Helena, and the islands of Macaronesia.

Macaronesia is a modern collective name for several groups of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean near Europe and North Africa belonging to three countries: Portugal, Spain, and Cape Verde. Macaronesia consists of four archipelagos: Azores (Portugal) Madeira (Portugal) Canaries (Spain) and Cape Verde (Cape Verde). The islands of Macaronesia are volcanic in origin, and their climate ranges from subtropical to tropical. The Portuguese archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira have a generally cooler climate and higher rainfall than the Canaries and Cape Verde.