Caribbean Sea ~ Seas and Oceans. Caribbean beauty. The sea is a piece of paradise on earth. Facts about the Caribbean Sea

And it is located in the tropical zone of the Western Hemisphere. In the northwest, the reservoir borders the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) and connects to the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Strait between Yucatan and Cuba. To the north and east are the Greater and Lesser Antilles. In the south, the sea washes the northern coast of South America. To the west and southwest is the coast of Central America. Here Caribbean waters connect with the waters of the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal.

Geography

The reservoir in question is one of the largest in the world. Its area is 2.754 thousand square meters. km. The volume of water is 6,860 thousand cubic meters. km. The maximum depth is 7686 meters. It was recorded in the so-called Cayman Trough. It is located between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. This is an underwater trench between the North American and Caribbean plates. The average depth of the reservoir is 2500 meters.

Countries

A huge sea washes many countries. In South America these are Venezuela and Colombia. In Central America: Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. The latest in this series is the Yucatan Peninsula. Its northern part is occupied by 3 Mexican states, and to the south there are lands belonging to Belize and Guatemala.

In the northern part of the Greater Antilles there are states such as Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. The territory of the Lesser Antilles is occupied by such countries as Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago.

Caribbean Sea on the map

Islands

Those who are not in the know need to know that the Bahamas never belonged to the Caribbean. They are located north of Cuba and south of Florida. These are the waters of the Atlantic, and historically this area is called the West Indies. Here it covers both the Caribbean and the Bahamas. This term appeared after Columbus's discovery of America.

The body of water in question contains the Antilles, divided into Large and Small. The first includes 4 large islands: Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. This also includes small islands located near Cuba and forming the archipelagos of Los Canarreos and Jardines de la Reina.

The Lesser Antilles are much more numerous. They are influenced by the northwestern trade wind and are divided into windward and leeward or southern. The first group has about 50 islands. The southern group stretches along the coast of South America and includes both individual islands and archipelagos.

Closer to the western coast of the reservoir there are several archipelagos. These are the Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac), the Islas de la Bahia, belonging to Honduras, as well as the Miskitos and Turneffe islands. There are separate islands of San Andres and Providencia.

Rivers

Many rivers flow into the huge reservoir. The Magdalena River is considered the largest river in South America. It flows through Colombia and has a length of 1550 km. Its annual flow is the largest and is approximately 230 cubic meters. km. The second Colombian river is called Atrato. Its length is 644 km. Some of the rivers flow into Lake Maracaibo (the largest in South America). It is connected to the Venezuelan Gulf of the Caribbean Sea by a shallow strait, the depth of which does not exceed 4 meters.

The reservoir is also fed by about 30 rivers in Central America. There are rivers on the islands. For example, the Cauto River in Cuba. Its length is 343 km. Or the Artibonite River in Haiti with a length of 240 km. There are rivers in Jamaica too. These are Milk River and Black River.

Climate

The climate is tropical. It is formed by the subtropical Caribbean Current, which is a continuation of the South Trade Wind Current. Warm waters flow from southeast to northwest and through the Yucatan Strait into the Gulf of Mexico, where the Gulf Stream originates. Therefore, the annual temperature ranges from 21 to 29 degrees Celsius.

Trade winds dominate on the reservoir. Their speed ranges from 16 to 30 km/h. Tropical hurricanes occur in the northern part of the reservoir. Their speed can reach 120 km/h. Such strong winds sometimes bring real tragedy: people die, houses collapse, crops perish. For example, Hurricane Mitch, which formed in the western part of the sea in October 1998, brought a lot of grief. 11 thousand people died and the same number went missing. 2.7 million people were left without housing. These were mainly citizens of Nicaragua and Honduras.

Economy

The Caribbean Sea is inextricably linked with oil production. Approximately 170 million tons of oil per year are produced in its waters. In addition, the fishing industry is well developed. Sea waters produce up to 500 thousand tons of fish per year. However, human activities pollute the environment. This primarily affects coral reefs, which are steadily bleaching and their ecosystems are being destroyed.

In the near future, this may not have the best effect on the tourism industry. Up to 40 million tourists visit this area every year. The net profit from them is about 30 billion dollars. Many tourists are attracted by diving and the beauty of coral reefs. Approximately 3 million local residents living on the islands are in one way or another connected with the tourism business. So issues related to ecology are quite acute.

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The underwater and terrestrial world of the Caribbean

The marine biota of the Caribbean Sea originated from representatives of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, which arrived here before the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama approximately 4 million years ago. Currently, the Caribbean Sea is home to approximately 450 species of fish, including bull shark, tiger shark, silky shark and Caribbean reef shark, flying fish, sea devils, orangefin tang (Acanthurus bahianus), angelfish (Pomacanthus), ocellated fish butterflyfish (Chaetodon ocellatus), parrotfish, goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara), tarpon and moray eels.

A number of species of marine life are of practical importance and are harvested. Thus, throughout the Caribbean region, industrial fishing of lobsters is carried out, off the coast of Yucatan - sardines, as well as some types of tuna. Popular species among recreational fishermen include albuidae, barracuda, marlin and wahoo.

The mammals of the Caribbean region are represented by 90 species, and in particular there are sperm whales, humpback whales and dolphins, and seals and American manatees live off the island of Jamaica. Previously, the Caribbean monk seal lived in the Caribbean Sea, but is now considered extinct. Representatives of the region's native slittooth family are now in danger of extinction.

Almost 500 species are represented by reptiles of the Caribbean region, of which almost 94% of species are endemic. The islands of the region are home to several endemic species of cycluridae, the sharp-snouted crocodile is widespread, and several species of sea turtles are quite common: Trichechea spp., loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), green turtle, hawksbill turtle, leatherback turtle, Atlantic ridley turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) and olive turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea). At the same time, some species of turtles are now in danger of extinction, since their population has greatly decreased since the 17th century: the number of green turtles has decreased from 91 million to 300 thousand individuals, and hawksbill turtles - from 11 million to less than 30 thousand.

The Caribbean region is home to approximately 170 species of amphibians, all of which are endemic, and virtually all members of the families of toads, poison dart frogs, tree frogs and whistlers are restricted to a single island. Of the 600 bird species recorded in the Caribbean, 163 are endemic, such as the tody, Cuban avoc-billed woodpecker and stonechat. At the same time, 48 endemic species are under threat of extinction: the Puerto Rican Amazon, the Cuban crake, the Cuban wren, etc. Parrots, sugar birds and toucans live in the forests, and frigates and phaetons can be found above the open sea.

Currently, no more than 23 thousand km² of indigenous forests remain on the Caribbean islands, which is approximately 10% of their original area; the rest were cut down during the development of the territories. Cuba has the largest forests in the island part of the region; less than 15% of the forests remain intact.

It is estimated that the Atlantic Ocean contains approximately 9% of the world's coral reefs, covering an area of ​​50 thousand km², with most of them located off the coast of the Caribbean islands and Central America. Recently, due to anthropogenic and natural reasons, the population of madrepore corals has decreased, and the amount of seaweed has increased. This process was further aggravated by the mass death of sea urchins feeding on algae. It has been observed that the warming of the Caribbean Sea as a result of global climate change is threatening fragile coral reef ecosystems. This is due to the fact that microscopic algae zooxanthellae, which provide food and color to corals, die when the water temperature exceeds 29 °C for a long time. Their death consequently leads to coral bleaching and disruption of the entire reef ecosystem...

The area of ​​the Caribbean Sea is 2,754,000 km². The average depth is 1225 m. The average volume of water is 6860 thousand km³.

The sea is located on the Caribbean lithospheric plate. It is divided into five basins, separated from each other by underwater ridges and strings of islands. The Caribbean Sea is considered shallow compared to other bodies of water, although its maximum depth is approximately 7,686 meters (in the Cayman Trench between Cuba and Jamaica).

The shores are mountainous in some places, low-lying in others; in the west and near the Antilles they are bordered by coral reefs. The coastline is heavily indented; in the west and south there are bays - Honduras, Darien, Venezuela (Maracaibo), etc.

The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas in the transition zone, separated from the ocean by a system of island arcs of different ages, of which the youngest, with modern active volcanoes, is the Lesser Antilles arc. More mature island arcs form large islands - Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico with an already formed continental (northern part of Cuba) or subcontinental crust. The island arc of the Cayman - Sierra Maestra is also young, expressed for the most part by the underwater Cayman Ridge, accompanied by the deep-sea trench of the same name (7680 m). Other underwater ridges (Aves, Beata, Marcelino sill) appear to be submerged island arcs. They divide the bottom of the Caribbean Sea into a number of basins: Grenada (4120 m), Venezuela (5420 m). Columbia (4532 m), Bartlett with the deep-sea Cayman Trench, Yucatan (5055 m). The bottoms of the basins have a suboceanic type crust. Bottom sediments are calcareous foraminiferal silts, in the southwestern part - weakly manganese, calcareous silts, in shallow water - various coral deposits, including numerous reef structures. The climate is tropical, influenced by trade wind circulation and characterized by great homogeneity. Average monthly air temperatures range from 23 to 27 °C. Cloudiness 4-5 points. Precipitation amounts range from 500 mm in the east to 2000 mm in the west. From June to October in the north. Tropical hurricanes are observed in parts of the sea. The hydrological regime is highly homogeneous. The surface current, under the influence of trade winds, moves from east to west. Off the coast of Central America, it deviates to the northwest and leaves through the Yucatan Strait into the Gulf of Mexico. The current speed is 1-3 km/h, near the Yucatan Strait up to 6 km/h. The Gulf of Mexico is an intermediate basin for waters that come from the Atlantic Ocean and, when leaving the Gulf of Mexico into the ocean, give rise to the Gulf Stream. Average monthly surface water temperatures range from 25 to 28 °C; annual fluctuations are less than 3 °C. Salinity is about 36.0 ‰. Density 1.0235-1.0240 kg/m3 The color of the water is from bluish-green to green. The tides are predominantly irregular semidiurnal; their size is less than 1 m. The vertical change in hydrological characteristics occurs to a depth of 1500 m, below which the sea is filled with homogeneous water coming from the Atlantic Ocean; its temperature is from 4.2 to 4.3 °C, salinity is 34.95-34.97‰. The Caribbean Sea is home to sharks, flying fish, sea turtles and other types of tropical fauna. Sperm whales and humpback whales are found, and seals and manatees are found near the island of Jamaica.

The Caribbean Sea is of great economic and strategic importance as the shortest sea route connecting the ports of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal. The most important ports are Maracaibo and La Guaira (Venezuela), Cartagena (Colombia), Limon (Costa Rica), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Colon (Panama), Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), etc.

The name "Caribbean" is derived from the Caribs, one of the dominant American Indian tribes that lived on the coast at the time of Columbus's contact with the natives in the late 15th century. After the discovery of the West Indies by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Caribbean Sea was called the Sea of ​​Antilles, in honor of the Spaniards who discovered the Antilles. In various countries, the Caribbean Sea is still confused with the Antilles Sea.

An marginal semi-enclosed sea of ​​the Atlantic Ocean basin, limited to the west and south by Central and South America, and to the north and east by the Greater and Lesser Antilles. In the northwest it is connected to the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Strait, and in the southwest it is connected to the Pacific Ocean through the artificial Panama Canal.

Lies between 9° and 22° N. w. and between 89° and 60° W. d., its area is approximately 2,753,000 km. sq.
In the south it washes Venezuela, Colombia and Panama, in the west - Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula, in the north - Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Puerto Rico; in the east - the states of the Lesser Antilles

Coastline of the Caribbean Sea

The coastline of the sea is heavily indented, the shores are mountainous in some places, low-lying in others (Caribbean lowland). The shallow areas contain various coral deposits and numerous reef structures. There are several bays on the continental coast, the largest of which are: Honduras, Mosquitos, Darien and Venezuela. In the northern part are the bays of Batabano, Ana Maria and Guacanaybo (the southern coast of the island of Cuba), as well as the Gulf of Gonave (the western part of the island of Haiti).

There are several bays on the east coast of Yucatan, including Ascencion, Espiritu Santo and Chetumal. The Gulf of Honduras ends in Amatica Bay, located on the border of Belize and Guatemala. The northern coast of Honduras is slightly indented, and several lagoons jut into the Mosquito Coast, including the lagoons of Caratasca, Bismuna, Perlas and Bluefields Bay. In the east of Panama there is a large lagoon called Chiriqui. Off the coast of South America, the Gulf of Darien ends in the Gulf of Uraba, and the Gulf of Venezuela, fenced off by the Guajira Peninsula, ends in Lake Maracaibo. To the west of the island of Trinidad lies the Gulf of Paria, which is considered part of the Atlantic Ocean.

Islands

The concept of the West Indies usually includes the Antilles and the Bahamas. The Caribbean Sea is washed only by the Antilles, which are divided into the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. The Greater Antilles border the northern border of the sea and include four large islands: Cuba, Haiti (formerly called Hispaniola), Jamaica and Puerto Rico, as well as small nearby islands - the archipelagos of Los Canarreos (the largest island of Juventud) and Jardines de La Reina, lying off the southern coast of Cuba.

The Lesser Antilles are divided into Windward and Leeward Islands (Southern Antilles), so named in reference to the north-west trade wind. The first group lies on the eastern border of the sea and consists of approximately 50 islands, the largest of which are: St. Croix, St. Thomas (Virgin Islands), Anguilla, St. Martin, St. Kitts, Barbuda, Antigua (Antigua and Barbuda), Grand Ter and Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe), Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Barbados, Grenada, Tobago and Trinidad. The Southern Antilles are located along the coast of South America and include the islands of Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire (possession of the Netherlands), Margarita, the archipelagos of Las Aves and Los Roques (Venezuela) and a number of other smaller areas.

The Western Caribbean Sea is home to several archipelagos such as the Cayman Islands, Turneffe Islands, Islas de la Bahia and Miskitos, as well as a number of individual islands (Providencia, San Andres) and cays (Lighthouse, Glover, Media Luna and other).

Climate

The Caribbean Sea has a tropical climate influenced by the trade wind circulation. Average monthly air temperatures vary from 23 to 27 °C. Cloud cover is 4-5 points.

Average annual rainfall in the region varies from 250 mm on the island of Bonaire to 9,000 mm in the windward parts of Dominica. Northeast trade winds prevail with average speeds of 16-32 km/h, but tropical hurricanes occur in the northern regions of the sea, the speed of which can exceed 120 km/h. On average, 8-9 such hurricanes occur per year from June to November, and they are most frequent in September-October.

Vegetation of the Caribbean

The region's vegetation is predominantly tropical, but differences in topographic, soil and climatic conditions increase species diversity. The islands' porous limestone terraces tend to be nutrient-poor. It is estimated that the Caribbean region is home to 13,000 plant species, of which 6,500 are endemic, such as guaiac wood and mahogany. In coastal areas, coconut palms are common, lagoons and river estuaries are overgrown with dense mangroves (red and black mangrove).

Animal world

The marine biota of the region originated from representatives of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, which entered the Caribbean Sea before the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama about 4 million years ago. The Caribbean Sea is home to approximately 450 species of fish, including sharks (bull shark, tiger shark, silky shark and Caribbean reef shark), flying fish, sea devils, orangefin tangfish, angelfish, ocellated butterflyfish, parrotfish, giant bass, tarpon and moray eels. Throughout the Caribbean region, industrial fishing is carried out for lobsters, sardines (off the coast of Yucatan) and some types of tuna. Albulids, barracudas, marlin and wahoo are popular among recreational fishermen.

The mammals of the Caribbean region are represented by 90 species, including sperm whales, humpback whales and dolphins. Seals and American manatees live off the island of Jamaica. The Caribbean monk seal, which formerly lived in the region, is considered extinct; Representatives of the region's native slittooth family are under threat of extinction.

All 170 species of amphibians found in the region are endemic. The habitats of almost all representatives of the families of toads, dart frogs, tree frogs and whistlers are limited to one island.

There are 600 bird species recorded in the Caribbean, 163 of which are endemic to the region, such as the tody, Cuban avoc-billed woodpecker and stonechat. Of the endemic species, 48 ​​species are in danger of extinction: the Puerto Rican Amazon, the Cuban crake, the Cuban wren, etc. The Antilles, along with Central America, lie on the route of bird migration from North America, so the size of bird populations is subject to strong seasonal fluctuations. Parrots, sugarbirds and toucans live in the forests; frigates and phaetons can be found over the open sea.

Tourism

Thanks to its warm climate and magnificent beaches, the Caribbean region is one of the main resort areas in the world. The rich marine fauna attracts divers; In addition to natural beauty, the region is rich in cultural monuments of pre-Columbian civilizations and the colonial era. The tourism industry is an important component of the Caribbean economy, serving primarily travelers from the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Air travel between North America and the Caribbean is better developed than within the region.