The Falkland Islands are roughly 483km (300 miles) east of southern South America's Patagonian coast and somewhat to the north of the Straights of Magellan between the geographic coordinates of latitudes 51°S and 53°S and longitudes 57°30´W and 61°30´W.The islands sit on an extension of the Patagonian continental shelf, bounded to the north by the Falklands Escarpment, a steep slope which separates it from the Argentine Basin. The sloping area between the Falklands and the Falklands Escarpment, a gradient between depths of 150 and 1500m, is the Falklands Basin. To the north the shelf extends 200km beyond the Falklands and to the southwest it runs for 50km from the islands. Southwards, a deep trough running east-west, the Falklands Trough, divides the Falklands Plateau from the Burdwood Bank. Water depths around the coast of the Falklands are typically 20-40m.
There are two main islands, East and West Falklands and some 778 smaller offshore islands, covering some 11,900 square km which can be likened in size to Wales, Northern Ireland or Connecticut.
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