The Virgin Islands basin is a 4.5-km-deep passage that connects the Atlantic and Caribbean seas. A variety of models have been proposed to explain its tectonic origin, which range from right- and left-lateral pull-apart basins to a rotational-type basin or even a simple, orthogonal rift basin. This study integrates three data types to better understand the Miocene to recent kinematics of basin opening and its present-day tectonics known from a parallel zone of earthquakes and GPS results that span the basin from Puerto Rico to St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands). A grid of 400 km of 2D seismic lines...