The Caribbean Sea is the Atlantic Ocean’s second-largest limited ocean, following the Sargasso ocean, addressing about 2.7 million square kilometers. The greatest point may be the Puerto Rico Trench

The name “Caribbean” hails from “Caribs,” a local United states group of smaller Antilles. The sea mostly consumes the Caribbean Plate, because of the isle arcs splitting it from the remainder of the ocean. The Caribbean Sea houses many red coral reefs, including the Mesoamerican shield Reef, one of the world’s largest barrier reefs.

Place

Map associated with Caribbean.

The Caribbean Sea is situated in the Western Hemisphere, between main and America. It really is split from Pacific sea by Mexico and middle America regarding the west and bounded from the better Antilles for the north, the Lesser Antilles towards the east, and south by south usa. It really is from the Gulf of Mexico to your north of the Yucatan route.

Environment

Exotic cyclone in Havana with big surf hitting the sea wall.

The Caribbean water was a warm ocean whose climate is usually warm, characterized by fantastic neighborhood variants. The sea’s weather is actually impacted by the warm ocean currents, hill elevation, and trade winds. The North Equatorial current, going into the Caribbean Sea through the exotic Atlantic, are a significant influence on the spot’s weather.

Rainfall varies with drinking water recent and level, ranging from not as much as 12 in every year about Bonaire Island, off Venezuela’s shore, to 350 in annually in the regions around Dominica. The trade wind gusts strike throughout the area constantly at a velocity of 10-20 miles per hour, producing semi-arid and rainforest climates in the area. The lowland areas between Belize and Costa Rica skills tropic rainforest weather, while Cuba, Yucatan Peninsula, and Venezuela experiences dried out tropical savanna climates. Arid environment is normal across the isles of Curacao and Aruba.

Exotic storms, achieving hurricane velocity of over 75 miles per hour, tend to be seasonally infrequent when you look at the northern Caribbean but rare into the far southern. The cyclones often build on Africa’s western shore and travel over the Atlantic water. The hurricane period persists between Summer and November, peaking in August and September. Consequently, the optimum time to visit the Caribbean is between December and April, as soon as the climate is generally speaking much cooler, considerably humid, and drier.

Isle Groups

The Caribbean part possess about 7,000 countries, including sovereign countries and regions. These isles include divided in to three groups. The higher Antilles is actually an island class on the Caribbean Sea’s north coast, comprising four isle says and two offshore regions. The hawaiian islands in this region include Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, Cayman Island, and Puerto Rico. Hispaniola Island are discussed by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, even though the UNITED KINGDOM therefore the people have Cayman Island and Puerto Rico. Cuba is the largest from the Caribbean countries, comprising 110,860 rectangular kilometers. The Hispaniola isle consist between Cuba into the western and Puerto Rico toward east. Jamaica is positioned toward Hispaniola’s southwest, whilst Cayman Islands take Jamaica’s west.

Isle teams from inside the Caribbean.

The smaller Antilles try an island group forming the Caribbean Sea’s eastern shore and placed within better Antilles and south usa. The smaller Antilles isles include divided into three major communities. The Leeward countries includes islands regarding the north, like the United States Virgin Islands, british Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Saint Martins, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Montserrat. The next lower Antilles will be the Windward countries, comprising Dominica, Saint Lucia, Martinique, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago. The Leeward Antilles are islands off Venezuela’s coast, comprised of the 3 Dutch ABC countries (Aruba. Bonaire, and Curacao). Trinidad and Tobago will be the prominent from the smaller Antilles.

The third isle group in the Caribbean Sea may be the Bahamas (Lucayan) Archipelago. They comprises the isle of Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands (British international area). Both countries cover a total part of 5,524 square miles. The more Antilles, Lesser Antilles, therefore the Lucayan Archipelago form the West Indies part.

Relief

The Caribbean ocean are subdivided into five basins, split by increases and ridges: Colombia, Cayman, Yucatan, Grenada, and Venezuela basins. The Yucatan Basin may be the sea’s northernmost basin, with all the Yucatan station breaking up it through the Gulf of Mexico. The Yucatan Channel runs between your Yucatan Peninsula on west and Cuba throughout the east and has a sill degree of 5,250 ft. The Yucatan Basin are partly split up from the Cayman Basin because of the Cayman Ridge, which goes up above to form the Cayman countries. Conversely, Cayman Basin try split from the Colombian Basin from the Nicaraguan advancement, with a sill depth of approximately 4,000 legs. Eventually, Beata Ridge distinguishes the Colombian Basin from the Venezuelan Basin, whilst Aves Ridge sets apart the Grenada Basin from the Venezuelan Basin.

Mountains in the Dominican Republic.

Although more Caribbean countries become reasonably dull, most are rugged and dotted with mountain selections. The Caribbean’s finest hill number is the Cordillera Central, which operates through Dominican Republic (Hispaniola island). Pico Duarte, the Caribbean Region’s highest top, with an elevation of 10,164 feet, sorts a portion of the mountain assortment. The Cordillera middle expands into north Haiti as Massif du Nord. The azure hills will be the longest mountain number in Jamaica. It hosts the nation’s finest top, the Blue hill Peak, which goes up 2,256 m above sea-level. Different mountain range in Caribbean are Dry Harbor in addition to John Crow Mountains.