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Introduction to the Caribbean Sea
The Atlantic Ocean is a sea. It covers an area of approximately 2,754,000 square kilometers (1,063,000 square miles). It is located at 9°22° north latitude and 89°60° west longitude. It is bounded by the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia and Panama to the south; to the west it is bounded by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula; to the north it is bounded by the Greater Antilles and to the east it is bounded by the Lesser Antilles Islands. Due to its location between two continents, it was once inappropriately called the "Mediterranean of America" along with the Gulf of Mexico. Oceanographically it is called the Sino-American Sea. The deepest point is the Cayman Trench, between Cuba and Jamaica, which is 7,686 meters (25,216 feet) deep.
The Caribbean generally has a tropical climate. However, it varies from place to place due to the influence of mountains, ocean currents and trade winds. The average annual rainfall in some areas of Dominica is as high as 889 centimeters (350 inches), while the average annual rainfall on Bonaire Island off the coast of Venezuela is only 25 centimeters (10 inches). From June to September every year, tropical storms (hurricanes) with speeds of up to 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour are common in the north and the Gulf of Mexico, but extremely rare in the south. The seafloor can be divided into five oval-shaped basins, separated from each other by ridges and rises. From west to east are the Yucatan, Cayman, Colombia, Venezuela and Grenada basins.
The deep water in the North Atlantic enters the Caribbean Sea from below the windward channel, with an oxygen content of 6 ml/liter and a salinity of 35. A high-oxygen water layer is formed at a depth of 1,800 to 3,000 meters (5,900 to 9,800 feet) in the Venezuelan Ocean Basin. Due to the obstruction of submarine ridges, the bottom water from Antarctica cannot enter. The bottom temperature of the Caribbean Sea is close to 4℃ (39℉), while the bottom temperature of the Atlantic Ocean is less than 2℃ (36℉). The surface current enters the Caribbean Sea mainly through the waterways and straits between the Southern Antilles, and then crosses the narrow Yucatan Strait and enters the Gulf of Mexico driven by the trade winds. This wind-driven surface water accumulates in the Yucatan Basin and the Gulf of Mexico, causing the sea level there to be higher than that of the Atlantic Ocean, forming a hydrostatic head, which is generally believed to be the main source of power for the Gulf Stream.
The vegetation in the Caribbean is generally tropical. There are dense mangroves surrounding the lagoons and bays, coconut groves along the coast, and cacti and rainforests commonly growing on the islands. There are many kinds of rare birds and animals. Tourism is an important sector in the Caribbean economy, and the bright sunshine and tourist areas have made the region a major winter resort in the world.
In the North Atlantic, there is a sea named after an Indian tribe. Its name is "Caribbean", which means "brave" or "upright person".
The Caribbean Sea is a marginal sea in the western Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered to the west and south by Central America and South America, and to the north and east by the Greater and Lesser Antilles. Its scope is defined as: starting from Catochi Point on the Yucatan Peninsula, going in a clockwise direction through the Yucatan Strait to the island of Cuba, and then to the island of Hispaniola (Haiti, Dominican Republic and the Republic of) , Puerto Rico to the Lesser Antilles via the Anegada Strait, and along the outer edges of these islands to Puno Baya in Venezuela. The line connecting the mouth of the Yucatan Channel is the dividing line between the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The Caribbean Sea is about 2,735 kilometers long from east to west, 805-1,287 kilometers wide from north to south, with a total area of 2.754 million square kilometers, a volume of 6.86 million cubic kilometers, and an average water depth of 2,491 meters. The maximum known water depth is 7,100 meters, located in the Cayman Trench.
The zigzag curved coastline of Central and South America divides this area into several major waters: the Gulf of Honduras off the coast of Guatemala and Honduras, Mosquito Bay off the coast of Panama, and near Colon, Panama The Panama Canal, Darien Bay on the border between Panama and Colombia, the Gulf of Venezuela outside the mouth of Lake Maracaibo in northern Venezuela, and the Gulf of Paria between Venezuela and Trinidad. Most rivers in Central America flow into the Caribbean Sea, but most rivers in South America join the Orinoco River and flow into the Atlantic Ocean just south of Port of Spain.
The main imports and exports of the Caribbean Sea are the Yucatan Strait between the Yucatan Peninsula and the island of Cuba, the Windward Channel between Cuba and the island of Hispaniola, and the channel between the island of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Mona Strait, Anegada Strait between the Virgin Islands and Martin Strait, and the Dominican Strait north of Dominica Island. The water depth in each strait is more than 1,000 meters.
The Caribbean basin is separated by several ridges, making the basins and trenches staggered. The northernmost Yucatan Basin has a water depth of about 5,000 meters. It is bounded by the 220-kilometer-wide Yucatan Strait to the north and separated by the Cayman Ridge and Cayman Trench in the south. This ridge reaches directly from Cuba to the coast of Central America, and the Cayman Islands are exposed to the east of it. The Cayman Trench is quite narrow and contains the Caribbean Sea's maximum water depth (7,100 meters). Further south, there is the wider wedge-shaped Nicaragua Rise, which separates the trench from the Columbia Basin, and the island of Jamaica sits on this rise. The Colombian Basin is 3,666 meters deep and is connected to the Venezuelan Basin. Further east is the North Venezuela Trench. But westward from Hispaniola, the Beata Ridge separates the Colombian Basin from the Venezuelan Basin. The water depth of the Venezuelan Sea Basin is 5058 meters, and it is adjacent to the narrow and curved Aves Rise.
The Caribbean Sea is almost surrounded by the Central and South American continents and the Greater and Lesser Antilles, and is connected to the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Strait to the northwest. It is about 2,800 kilometers long from east to west, about 1,400 kilometers at its widest point from north to south, and covers an area of about 2.64 million square kilometers. It is the largest inland sea in the world. Some people once called it the "American Mediterranean" together with the Gulf of Mexico.
The Caribbean Sea is also the sea with the most coastal countries. Among the more than 50 seas in the world, only two have double-digit coastal states, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. There are 17 littoral countries in the Mediterranean Sea, while there are 20 in the Caribbean Sea, including Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama in Central America, Colombia and Venezuela in South America, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and the Greater Antilles. countries, as well as Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, etc. in the Lesser Antilles.
The Caribbean Sea is named after the Caribbean Indians who originally inhabited the area. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Strait to the northwest, and to the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east through the Windward Channel, Mona Strait and a series of straits between the Greater and Lesser Antilles. It is one of the deepest intercontinental seas in the world.
The crust in the ocean area is very unstable, surrounded by deep ocean trenches and volcanic seismic zones. The seafloor is divided into two parts by the broad Jamaica Ridge; in the west there are the Yucatan Basin and the Cayman Trench, which are separated by the submarine mountains extending westward from the Maestra Mountains of Cuba Island. The submarine mountains are composed of peaks exposed above the sea. Big and Little Cayman and other islands. The depth of the Yucatan Basin is about 4,000 meters, the average depth of the Cayman Trench is 5,000 to 6,000 meters, and the deepest point reaches 7,680 meters. The eastern part is divided into the Colombian Basin and the Venezuelan Basin by the Beata Ridge, which runs northeast to southwest. The average depth of the Colombian Sea Basin is about 3,000 meters, with the deepest point being 4,535 meters; the average depth of the Venezuelan Sea Basin is about 4,500 meters, with the deepest point reaching 5,630 meters. The Jamaica Ridge extends southwest from Haiti and Jamaica to the east of Honduras and Nicaragua in Central America. The depth is generally about 500 meters, and more than half of it is less than 200 meters deep. The seabed of the Caribbean Sea is composed of Cenozoic sediments, the deeper basins and trenches are mostly red clay, the seafloor is composed of coccidial ooze, and the submarine mountains and continental slopes are composed of pteropod ooze.
Most of the sea area is located between 10° and 20° north latitude, and has a tropical climate. Northeasterly winds prevail throughout the year, with high temperatures, humidity, and an unstable atmosphere. Tropical storms occur in the north and middle from June to November every year, and are most frequent in September. The wind speed can exceed 33.5 meters/second, occurring an average of 8 times a year, causing adverse effects on shipping. The current in the sea area is a powerful warm current formed by the convergence of parts of the North Equatorial Current and the South Equatorial Current in the Atlantic Ocean after passing through the Lesser Antilles. It flows through the entire Caribbean Sea from east to west at a speed of 28 to 83 cm/second, and finally flows from The Yucatan Strait flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
Due to the low latitude of the sea area and the influence of warm currents, the surface water temperature of seawater is high, often reaching 27~28℃, with a small change range in winter and summer, ranging from 25.6~28.9℃. The high temperature is conducive to the reproduction of coral polyps in shoals and volcanic island bases, so there are many coral reefs and coral islands distributed in the sea area. The Caribbean Sea, especially the northwestern coast of the South American continent, is affected by offshore winds and forms upwellings, which bring nutrients from the sea to the surface, making it suitable for plankton and fish breeding. It has become an important fishing ground in Latin America, rich in tuna, sea turtles, sardines, lobsters, etc. The southern part of the sea area is an oil producing area. The Caribbean Sea is a must-pass sea area for transportation and trade routes between Central America and South and North America. Since the opening of the Panama Canal in 1920, it has become an important sea channel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, greatly promoting the development of more than 30 countries and regions along the Caribbean Sea. economic development. The main ports are Caracas (Venezuela), Colon (Panama), Kingston (Jamaica) and Willemstad (Netherlands Antilles).