Trinidad contains Pitch Lake, the world’s largest natural asphalt deposit.
Pitch Lake lies near La Brea in southwestern Trinidad. It covers roughly 100 acres and formed when underground petroleum rose through faults and reached the surface. Lighter components evaporated, leaving a dense mixture of bitumen, clay, and other minerals.
The lake’s surface is not simply a pool of liquid tar. It has hardened and semi-fluid areas, and visitors can often walk across sections of it. Natural gas bubbles and small pools of water occur in parts of the deposit, showing that geological activity continues below the surface.
Pitch Lake has been commercially mined for asphalt since the nineteenth century. Trinidad is the larger and more industrialized island of the country of Trinidad and Tobago; nearby Tobago does not contain the famous asphalt lake.