Caribbean Sea
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What is the Caribbean Sea?
The Caribbean Sea is a suboceanic basin in the western Atlantic Ocean, located between 9° and 22° N latitude and 60° and 89° W longitude. Bordered by Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama to the south, it also meets Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico to the west. The Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico form its northern boundary. To the east lies the Lesser Antilles island arc, stretching from the Virgin Islands to Trinidad.
The Caribbean Sea's climate is generally tropical, but local conditions vary with elevation, currents, and trade winds. The northeast trade winds are dominant, averaging 10 to 20 miles per hour. Hurricanes are common from June to November, with an average of eight per year.
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Where is the Caribbean Sea located?
The Caribbean Sea is a suboceanic basin in the western Atlantic Ocean, located between 9° and 22° N latitude and 60° and 89° W longitude. It is bounded by:
* Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama to the south
* Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico to the west
* Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico to the north
* The Lesser Antilles island arc to the eastThe Caribbean Sea connects to the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatán Channel.
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How is the Caribbean Sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean?
The Caribbean Sea connects to the Atlantic Ocean through several passages and channels. These include:
- Anegada Passage This channel lies between the British Virgin Islands and the Leeward Islands. Subantarctic intermediate water enters the Caribbean below the Anegada Passage.
- Windward Passage This strait, 50 miles (80 km) wide, separates Cuba and Hispaniola. North Atlantic deep water enters the Caribbean beneath the Windward Passage.
- Mona Passage This is a strait in the West Indies between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.
- Yucatán Channel This channel connects the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea between Mexico and Cuba. Surface currents pass through the narrow Yucatán Channel into the Gulf of Mexico.
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What countries and islands border the Caribbean Sea?
The Caribbean Sea is bordered by numerous countries and islands. To the south, it is bounded by Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama. Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico border it to the west. To the north lie the Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. The north-south chain of the Lesser Antilles, an island arc stretching from the Virgin Islands to Trinidad, off the Venezuelan coast, bounds it to the east.
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What is the climate like in the Caribbean Sea region?
The Caribbean region has a tropical climate, but local conditions vary based on elevation, currents, and trade winds. Rainfall ranges from 10 inches (25 cm) yearly on Bonaire to 350 inches (900 cm) in Dominica.
Northeast trade winds average 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km) per hour. Tropical storms, sometimes reaching hurricane velocity (more than 75 miles [120 km] per hour), are common from June to November, especially in the northern Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, while being rare in the far south. On average, there are eight such storms per year. Most hurricanes form near the Cape Verde Islands and track into the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
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Why is the Caribbean Sea important for trade, tourism, and the environment?
The Caribbean Sea is important for trade because it facilitates Atlantic-Pacific shipping via the Panama Canal, a route that saves billions in transit costs annually. However, most of the Caribbean countries' trade is conducted with countries outside the region.
The Caribbean is a major winter vacation destination, attracting tourists with its sunny climate and recreational opportunities. Tourism has grown dramatically in the late 20th century, despite poor infrastructure. The coral reefs and beaches of the Grenadines are particularly popular, with ecotourism being encouraged.
The Caribbean is home to diverse marine life, including coral reefs, sea turtles, and a variety of fish species. However, the region faces environmental challenges such as pollution and coral bleaching, which can damage marine ecosystems. International initiatives, such as the Cartegena Convention, seek to manage and preserve the Caribbean environment.
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Caribbean Sea, suboceanic basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, lying between latitudes 9° and 22° N and longitudes 89° and 60° W. It is approximately 1,063,000 square miles (2,753,000 square km) in extent. To the south it is bounded by the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama; to the west by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico; to the north by the Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico; and to the east by the north-south chain of the Lesser Antilles, consisting of the island arc that extends from the Virgin Islands in the northeast to Trinidad, off the Venezuelan coast, in the southeast. Within the boundaries of the Caribbean itself, Jamaica, to the south of Cuba, is the largest of a number of islands.
Together with the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea has been erroneously termed the American Mediterranean, owing to the fact that, like the Mediterranean Sea, it is located between two continental landmasses. In neither hydrology nor climate, however, does the Caribbean resemble the Mediterranean. The preferred oceanographic term for the Caribbean is the Antillean-Caribbean Sea, which, together with the Gulf of Mexico, forms the Central American Sea. The Caribbean’s greatest known depth is Cayman Trench (Bartlett Deep) between Cuba and Jamaica, approximately 25,216 feet (7,686 metres) below sea level.
Physical features
Geology
The geologic age of the Caribbean is not known with certainty. As part of the Central American Sea, it is presumed to have been connected with the Mediterranean during Paleozoic times (i.e., about 541 to 252 million years ago) and then gradually to have separated from it as the Atlantic Ocean was formed. The ancient sediments overlying the seafloor of the Caribbean, as well as of the Gulf of Mexico, are about a half mile (about one kilometre) in thickness, with the upper strata representing sediments from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras (from about 252 million years ago to the present) and the lower strata presumably representing sediments of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras (from about 541 to 66 million years ago). Three phases of sedimentation have been identified. During the first and second phases the basin was free of deformation. The Central American Sea apparently became separated from the Atlantic before the end of the first phase. Near the end of the second phase, gentle warping and faulting occurred, forming the Aves and Beata ridges. Forces producing the Panamanian isthmus and the Antillean arc were vertical, resulting in no ultimate horizontal movement. The sediment beds tend to arch in the middle of the basins and to dip as landmasses are approached. The younger Cenozoic beds (formed during the last 65 million years) are generally horizontal, having been laid down after the deformations occurred. Connections were established with the Pacific Ocean during the Cretaceous Period (from about 145 to 66 million years ago) but were broken when the land bridges that permitted mammals to cross between North and South America were formed in the Miocene and Pliocene epochs (about 23 to 2.6 million years ago).
The existing sediment cover of the seabed consists of red clay in the deep basins and trenches, globigerina ooze (a calcareous marine deposit) on the rises, and pteropod ooze on the ridges and continental slopes. Clay minerals appear to have been washed down by the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, as well as by the Magdalena River in Colombia. Coral reefs fringe most of the islands.
Physiography
The Caribbean Sea is divided into five submarine basins, each roughly elliptical in shape, which are separated from one another by submerged ridges and rises. These are the Yucatán, Cayman, Colombian, Venezuelan, and Grenada basins. The northernmost of these, the Yucatán Basin, is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by the Yucatán Channel, which runs between Cuba and the Yucatán Peninsula and has a sill depth (i.e., the depth of the submarine ridge between basins) of about 5,250 feet (1,600 metres). The Cayman Basin, to the south, is partially separated from the Yucatán Basin by Cayman Ridge, an incomplete fingerlike ridge that extends from the southern part of Cuba toward Guatemala, rising above the surface at one point to form the Cayman Islands. The Nicaraguan Rise, a wide triangular ridge with a sill depth of about 4,000 feet (1,200 metres), extends from Honduras and Nicaragua to Hispaniola, bearing the island of Jamaica and separating the Cayman Basin from the Colombian Basin. The Colombian Basin is partly separated from the Venezuelan Basin by the Beata Ridge. The basins are connected by the submerged Aruba Gap at depths greater than 13,000 feet (4,000 metres). The Aves Ridge, incomplete at its southern extremity, separates the Venezuelan Basin from the small Grenada Basin, which is bounded to the east by the Antillean arc of islands.
Subsurface water enters the Caribbean Sea across two sills. These sills are located below the Anegada Passage, which runs between the Virgin Islands and the Lesser Antilles, and the Windward Passage, which stretches between Cuba and Hispaniola. The sill depth of Anegada Passage is between 6,400 and 7,700 feet (1,950 and 2,350 metres), whereas that of the Windward Passage is between 5,250 and 5,350 feet (1,600 and 1,630 metres).
Hydrology
North Atlantic deep water enters the Caribbean beneath the Windward Passage and is characterized by its rich oxygen content and by a salinity of slightly less than 35 parts per thousand. From there it divides to fill the Yucatán, Cayman, and Colombian basins at depths near 6,500 feet (2,000 metres). This Caribbean bottom water also enters the Venezuelan Basin, thus introducing high-oxygen water at depths of 5,900 to 9,800 feet (1,800 to 3,000 metres). Subantarctic intermediate water (i.e., water differing in several characteristics from the surface and bottom layers of water that it separates) enters the Caribbean below the Anegada Passage at depths of 1,600 to 3,300 feet (500 to 1,000 metres). Above this water, the subtropical undercurrent and surface water enter. The shallow sill depths of the Antillean arc block the entry of Antarctic bottom water, so that the bottom temperature of the Caribbean Sea is close to 39 °F (4 °C), as compared with the Atlantic bottom temperature of less than 36 °F (2 °C).
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Surface currents, bearing both high- and low-salinity water depending on the source, enter the Caribbean mainly through the channels and passages of the southern Antilles. These waters are then forced by the trade winds through the narrow Yucatán Channel into the Gulf of Mexico. The wind-driven surface water accumulates in the Yucatán Basin and the Gulf of Mexico, where it results in a higher average sea level than in the Atlantic, forming a hydrostatic head that is believed to constitute the main driving force of the Gulf Stream. Of the water passing through the Yucatán Channel each second, only about one-fourth represents the deeper Subantarctic intermediate water. The remainder is the surface water that passed over the Antillean arc at depths of less than 2,600 feet (800 metres).
Climate
The climate of the Caribbean generally is tropical, but there are great local variations, depending on mountain elevation, water currents, and the trade winds. Rainfall varies from about 10 inches (25 cm) per year on the island of Bonaire off the coast of Venezuela to some 350 inches (900 cm) annually in parts of Dominica. The northeast trade winds dominate the region with an average velocity of 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km) per hour. Tropical storms reaching a hurricane velocity of more than 75 miles (120 km) per hour are seasonally common in the northern Caribbean as well as in the Gulf of Mexico; they are almost nonexistent in the far south. The hurricane season is from June to November, but hurricanes occur most frequently in September. The yearly average is about eight such storms. The Caribbean has fewer hurricanes than either the western Pacific (where these storms are called typhoons) or the Gulf of Mexico. Most hurricanes form in the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands and follow the path of the trade winds into the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, although the exact path of any hurricane is unpredictable. In 1963 one of the deadliest hurricanes on record, Flora, caused the loss of more than 7,000 lives and extensive property damage in the Caribbean alone. Such storms also have been a major cause of crop failure in the region.