Puerto Rico 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Puerto Rico 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Puerto Rico 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Puerto Rico 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Puerto Rico 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Puerto Rico 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 250.00
Size
Frame
13.5 x 31 in
Baltic birch, hand-stained water
Up to nine laser-cut birch layers
Carved bathymetric relief, laser-etched labels
Soundings: NOAA nautical survey data
How the Water Becomes Wood

A chart is a stack of flat sheets until the water's real soundings tell it what shape to take.

  1. SurveyReal bathymetric sounding data sets every contour line before a single cut is made.
  2. CutEach depth band is laser-cut from its own sheet of Baltic birch, up to nine layers deep.
  3. StainWater layers are stained by hand, reading darker the deeper the water runs.
  4. StackThe sheets are registered and stacked in sequence, and the bed's true shape rises out of the wood.
  5. EtchDepths and place names are burned into the grain itself, never printed on it.
  6. FrameA solid Baltic birch frame and acrylic glass finish the piece, ready to hang.

Puerto Rico in stacked Baltic birch, 13.5 by 31 inches: the island and its waters carved one depth contour per layer, with the deepest hole in the entire Atlantic lurking just off the top of the chart.

Puerto Rico sits on an oceanic edge: the Puerto Rico Trench, the Atlantic's deepest point at over 27,000 feet, runs just north of the island, and on the chart its plunge is the most dramatic stack of layers in the birch. The island answers with light of its own, Mosquito Bay on Vieques glows as the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world by Guinness reckoning, El Morro's walls have guarded San Juan's harbor mouth since the 1500s, and Rincon's points made the west coast a surfing pilgrimage. Culebra's Flamenco Beach rounds out the portfolio.

Contours are laser-cut sheet by sheet, stacked by hand, engraved, and set behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light.

From fortress walls to glowing water, the island's whole range is here in relief.

The engraving spans San Juan and El Morro, Vieques and Culebra, Rincon, and Ponce's south coast. Caribbean neighbors include the Virgin Islands just east.

  • 13.5 × 31 in
  • Solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light
  • Acrylic glass front, ready to hang
  • Free next-business-day shipping on orders placed by 2 PM EST
  • 14-day returns
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