This page features a series of lists of maritime features in the Spratly Islands.

Features by area Of the hundreds of maritime features in the Spratly Islands, relatively few have land permanently above sea-level that is larger than protruding rocks. There are only 13 islands and cays with a natural area above sea-level larger than one hectare. With the exception of Swallow Reef, prior to 2014 there had been no large-scale land reclamation beyond building breakwaters and piers, and extending runways.

This changed dramatically in 2014 with the PRC embarking on large-scale reclamations of the lagoons of Johnson South Reef (~10ha) and Fiery Cross Reef (~230ha), and other reclamations of then unknown extent at the Gaven Reefs and Cuarteron Reef. Reports of the extent of land reclaimed on Swallow Reef vary. The PRC land reclamations have continued on a total of seven sites. In 2015, Subi Reef, Hughes Reef and Mischief Reef were added. Refer to the table below for the most recently available data. In summary, there have been reclamations of very large areas (640 acres = 1 sq mile) at three sites by the PRC, reclamations of large areas (10-100 acres) at eight sites (four by PRC, three by Vietnam, and one by Malaysia) and reclamations of lesser areas at a number of sites. There does not appear to have been any reclamation of Philippine occupied areas. There have been small Taiwanese reclamations at Itu Aba, very small but functionally significant reclamations at six Malaysian sites, and a number small but significant reclamations at Vietnamese sites in 2016, most particularly at Spratly Island where the runway has been extended and a sheltered harbour added.

The following table contains the 16 largest "natural" features, (i.e. not including reclaimed land), plus the features with significant amounts of reclaimed land:

# Feature in Atoll "Natural" Area Location Currently occupied by Reclaimed Area 1 Itu Aba Island Tizard Bank (Taiping Island) ~ 2 Thitu Island Thitu Reefs (Pagasa Island) 3 West York Island West York Island (Likas Island) 4 Spratly Island Spratly Island (Trường Sa Island) ~ 5 Northeast Cay North Danger Reef (Parola Island) 6 Southwest Cay North Danger Reef (Song Tử Tây Island) ~ 7 Sin Cowe Island Union Banks (Sinh Tồn Island) ~ 8 Nanshan Island Loaita Bank (Lawak Island) 9 Sand Cay Tizard Bank (Sơn Ca Island) ~ 10 Loaita Island Loaita Bank (Kota Island) 11 Swallow Reef Swallow Reef (Layang-Layang Reef) ~ 12 Namyit Island Tizard Bank (Nam Yết Island) 13 Amboyna Cay Amboyna Cay (An Bang Island) Grierson Reef Union Banks (Sinh Tồn Đông Island) ~ West London ReefLondon Reefs (Đá Tây A Island) ~ Central London ReefLondon Reefs (Trường Sa Đông Island) ~ 14 Flat Island Loaita Bank (Patag Island) 15 Loaita Cay Loaita Bank (Panata Island) 16 Lankiam Cay Loaita Bank (Kota Cay) Mischief Reef Mischief Reef 0.00 ~ Subi Reef Thitu Reefs 0.00 ~ Fiery Cross Reef Fiery Cross Reef 0.00 ~ Cuarteron Reef London Reefs 0.00 ~ Gaven Reefs Tizard Bank 0.00 ~ Johnson South ReefUnion Banks 0.00 ~ Hughes Reef Union Banks 0.00 ~ Pearson ReefSW Dangerous Ground 0.00 (Phan Vinh Island) ~ Cornwallis South Reef SW Dangerous Ground 0.00 (Núi Le Reef) ~

Features by major reef/bank, etc.

The boundaries of the Spratly Islands are not firmly defined. West to east, the islands range from the coastal waters of Vietnam to the east of Dangerous Ground and the Palawan Passage (approx. 106–117°E), and south to north from the coastal waters of Borneo and the southern South China Sea to the north of Dangerous Ground and the Reed Bank (approx. 3–12°N).

The major feature of the area is Dangerous Ground, an oblong area approximately SW–NE, at its widest, with an area of about 52,000 nm2 (178,000 km2). It lies approximately between 7.5–12°N, 113–117°E; and US NGA literatureetc. seems to consider its centre as . The remainder of the Spratly Islands are mainly to the west and south of Dangerous Ground, with some features to the east.

The Spratly Islands can be roughly divided into seven sub-areas relative to Dangerous Ground: Direction fromDangerousGroundApprox.latitudeand longitudeRef. NW 10-12°N, 113-115°Ehttp://www.oceangrafix.com/chart/zoom?chart=93044 NW of Dangerous Ground NE 10-12°N, 115-117°Ehttp://www.oceangrafix.com/chart/zoom?chart=93045 NE Dangerous Ground SE7-10°N, 115–117°Ehttp://www.oceangrafix.com/chart/zoom?chart=93046 Most of the SE of Dangerous Ground. The missing portion of the SE is covered by chart 93048 and the top corner of chart 92006.Chart 93048 (not easily available on-line)http://www.oceangrafix.com/chart/zoom?chart=92006 SE Spratlys, Brunei, North Borneo and Southern Philippines SW 7-10°N, 113–115°Ehttp://www.oceangrafix.com/chart/zoom?chart=93047 SW Dangerous Ground E3-12°N, east of 117°ES3–7°N, 113-117°Ehttp://www.oceangrafix.com/chart/zoom?chart=93049 South and West of Dangerous Ground W3–12°N, west of 113°E +Relative positions of sub-areasWNWNEE SWSES

Within these sub-areas there are a number of major reefs and banks, as well as ungrouped maritime features.

Starting in the NW, and progressing in a generally SW direction, the features include: Sub-area Group Vicinity Contains NW ; Northeast Cay; Shira Islet; Southwest Cay; Jenkins Patches; South Reef; Sabine Patches; Farquharson Patches; Day Shoal; Iroquois Ridge NW Trident & Lys , NW Thitu Island; ; NW (Near ) Subi Reef NW Loaita Banks Lankiam Cay; Loaita Cay; Loaita Nan; Loaita Island NW (East of Loaita Banks) , Irving Reef, West York Island NW Tizard Banks Ban Than Reef/Zhongzhou Reef; Eldad Reef; Gaven Reefs; Namyit Island; Petley Reef; Sand Cay; Taiping Island/Itu Aba NW (West of Tizard Banks) Western Reef, Discovery Great Reef, W (West of Union Banks) Fiery Cross Reef, , SW Union Banks Collins Reef/Johnson North Reef, , Grierson Reef/Sin Cowe East Island, , , , Hughes Reef, Johnson South Reef, /Zhangxi Jiao, Lansdowne Reef, /Kennan Reef, Sin Cowe Island, Whitson Reef, , NE Reed Tablemount Reed Bank, , , , NE NE Dangerous Ground , Nanshan Island, Flat Island, Third Thomas Shoal, , /Hirane Shoal, /Hubo Reef, , , , /Seashore Shoal/Routh Shoal, , , , , , , /Magat Salamat Reef, NE ; E , Royal Captain Shoal, Half Moon Shoal, SE SE Dangerous Ground Sabina Shoal, , Second Thomas Shoal, Mischief Reef, First Thomas Shoal, , Commodore Reef, , , , , Investigator Northeast Shoal SW SW Dangerous Ground /Bittern Reef, Alison Reef, Cornwallis South Reef, Pearson Reef, Pigeon Reef, Investigator Shoal, Ardasier Reef, , Erica Reef, Mariveles Reef, Dallas Reef, Barque Canada Reef, W London Reefs Central London Reef; Cuarteron Reef; East London Reef; West London Reef W (Spratly Island vicinity) Spratly Island, Ladd Reef, W (West of Spratly Island) Scawfell Shoal, Charlotte Bank, Vanguard Bank, Julia Shoal, Royal Bishop Shoal W (Southwest of Spratly Island) ; ; Prince of Wales Bank; W Bombay Castle (bãi Ba Kè); (tức là Bãi Vũng Mây); (Bãi Đinh); (Bãi Đất), Bãi Ráng Chiều, bãi Ngũ Sắc, bãi Xà Cừ, bãi Vũ Tích S Amboyna Cay; Swallow Reef; Louisa Reef S Luconia Shoals : , , , , , , , : , , , , ,

Features by name

Features by occupier and/or claimant

A feature is occupied by a country if one of the following is true:

Soldiers and/or civilian citizens of a country are present in the feature, either by building structures over the feature to house the citizens (most features are of this type) or by manning a ship anchored over the feature (Philippine-occupied Irving Reef is of this type). Regularly visited by soldiers of a country, not necessarily having soldiers present in it 24 hours. These features must lie near (within ) a feature occupied by the country in the way of the first condition. Presence of structures is not necessary. This is the case of Philippine-occupied Flat Island and Lankiam Cay where soldiers stationed at Nanshan Island and Loaita Island respectively, regularly visit on a daily basis.

The effective visible distance of horizon from a 15-meter (typical large structure) height above sea-level is . This makes features occupied by the second condition to be also labeled as "occupied" since they can be guarded far away. However, not all features within the radius can be considered as absolutely occupied. This is especially true for features that lie between and within of two or more features occupied by different countries. (See Virtually Occupied or Controlled table)

Summary