The Atlantic belongs to the ocean. The area is about 2.754 million square kilometers (10.063 million square miles). Located at 9 north latitude? 22，89 W？ 60 。 In the south are the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia and Panama; It borders Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Yucatan Peninsula in the west; It is adjacent to the Greater Antilles in the north and the Leeds Islands in Xiaoan Temple in the east. It is located between two continents together with the Gulf of Mexico, and is inappropriately called "the Mediterranean of America". Oceanographically, it is called the Central American Sea. The deepest Cayman Trench lies between Cuba and Jamaica, with a depth of 7686 meters (252 16 feet).
The Caribbean Sea usually has a tropical climate. However, due to the influence of mountains, currents and trade winds, it varies from place to place. In some parts of Dominica, the average annual rainfall is as high as 889 cm (350 inches), while in Bonaire, a coastal island of Venezuela, the average annual rainfall is only 25 cm (65,438+00 inches). 6 per year? In September, tropical storms (hurricanes) with a speed of120km (75miles) are common in the north and the Gulf of Mexico, but extremely rare in the south. The seabed can be divided into five oval basins, separated by ridges and seamounts. From west to east are Yucatan Peninsula, Cayman, Colombia, Venezuela and Grenada Basin.
The deep water in the North Atlantic enters the Caribbean Sea from below the windward channel, with an oxygen content of 6 ml/L and a salinity of 35. Venezuela basin 1, 800? 3000 meters (5900 meters? 9800 feet) deep, forming a high-oxygen water layer. Due to the barrier of the submarine ridge, the bottom water from the South Pole cannot enter. The seabed temperature in the Caribbean Sea is close to 4℃(39℉), while that in the Atlantic Ocean is less than 2℃(36℉). Surface currents enter the Caribbean Sea mainly through waterways and straits between the South Antilles, and then cross the narrow Yucatan Strait into the Gulf of Mexico under the impetus of trade winds. These wind-driven surface waters gather in the Yucatan Basin and the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the sea level being higher than that of the Atlantic Ocean, forming a hydrostatic head, which is generally considered to be the main power source of the Gulf Stream.
The vegetation in the Caribbean is usually tropical. There are dense mangroves around lagoons and bays, and coconut trees, cacti and rain forests on the seashore are widely grown on all islands. There are many kinds of rare birds and animals. Tourism is an important sector of the Caribbean economy. Bright sunshine and tourist areas make this area a major winter resort in the world.
In the North Atlantic, there is an ocean named after Indian tribes. Its name is "Caribbean", which means "brave man" or "upright man".
The Caribbean Sea is the marginal sea in the western Atlantic Ocean. The west and south are adjacent to Central America and South America, and the north and east are bounded by the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. Its scope is defined as: starting from Cape Katosh in Yucatan Peninsula, clockwise, passing through Yucatan Strait to Cuba Island, then to Hispaniola Island (Haiti, Dominica and the Republic of China), Puerto Rico, passing through Anega Passage to Lesser Antilles, and along the outer edge of these islands to Cape Baya in Venezuela as the boundary. The connection point of Yucatan Strait is the dividing line between Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The Caribbean Sea is about 2,735 kilometers long from east to west and 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 249 1 meter. The maximum known water depth is 7100m, which is located in the Cayman Trench.
The winding coastline of Central and South America divides this sea area into several main waters: Honduran Bay along Guatemala and Honduras, Mosquito Bay along Panama, Panama Canal near Cologne, Darien Bay on the border between Panama and Colombia, Venezuela Bay outside the mouth of Lake Maracaibo in northern Venezuela and Parria Bay between Venezuela and Trinidad. Most rivers in Central America flow into the Caribbean Sea, but most rivers in South America meet at the Orinoco River and flow into the Atlantic Ocean just south of Port of Spain. The main imports and exports of Caribbean Sea include Yucatan Strait between Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba Island, Windward Strait between Cuba and Hispaniola Island, Mona Passage between Hispaniola Island and Puerto Rico, Anega Passage between Virgin Islands and Martin Strait, and Dominican Strait north of Dominica Island. The water depth of each channel is 1000 meters.
The Caribbean basin is separated by several ridges, which makes the basin and trench crisscross. The northernmost Yucatan Basin is about 5000 meters deep, bounded by the 220-kilometer-wide Yucatan Strait in the north and separated from the Cayman Trench by the Cayman Ridge in the south. The ridge extends from Cuba to the coast of Central America, and the Cayman Islands is exposed to the sea in the east. The Cayman Trench is quite narrow, and the maximum depth of the Caribbean Sea (7 100 m) is here. Further south, there is a wide wedge-shaped Nicaraguan seamount that separates the trench from the Columbia Basin, and Jamaica Island is on this seamount. Colombia basin is 3666 meters deep, connected with Venezuela basin, and further east is the North Venezuela Trench. However, from the island of Hispaniola to the west, there is a Bita Ridge that separates the Colombian basin from the Venezuelan basin. Venezuela basin is 5058 meters deep, adjacent to the narrow and curved Abbes seamount.
The Caribbean Sea is almost surrounded by the Central and South American continent and the large and small Antilles, and the northwest is connected with the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Strait. It is about 2,800 kilometers long from east to west and 1.400 kilometers wide from north to south, covering an area of about 2.64 million square kilometers. It is the largest inland sea in the world. Someone once called it "America Mediterranean" together with the Gulf of Mexico.
The Caribbean Sea is also the sea area with the largest number of coastal countries. Of the more than 50 sea areas in the world, only the Mediterranean and the Caribbean have double-digit coastal countries. There are 17 coastal countries in the Mediterranean, but there are 20 in the Caribbean, including Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama in Central America, Colombia and Venezuela in South America, Cuba, Haiti and Dominica in the Greater Antilles, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago in the Lesser Antilles.
The Caribbean Sea is named after the local Caribbean Indians. The Yucatan Strait in the northwest is connected with the Gulf of Mexico, and the north and east are connected with the Atlantic Ocean through the Windward Strait, which is a series of straits between mona passage and the big and small Antilles. It is one of the deepest continental seas in the world.
The crust in the sea area is very unstable, surrounded by deep-sea trenches and volcanic earthquake zones. The broad Jamaica Ridge divides the seabed into two parts. There are Yucatan Basin and Cayman Trench in the west, separated by submarine mountains extending westward from Maestra Mountain on Cuba Island. The peaks exposed from the undersea mountains form little cayman Island and Great Britain Island. The depth of Yucatan Basin is about 4000m, the average depth of Cayman Trench is 5000m ~ 6000m, and the deepest point is 7680m. The east is divided into Columbia Basin and Venezuela Basin by Bita Ridge which runs northeast and southwest. The average depth of the Columbia Basin is about 3,000 meters, and the deepest point is 4,535 meters. The average depth of Venezuela basin is about 4500 meters, and the deepest part is 5630 meters. Jamaica Ridge extends from Haiti and Jamaica to the southwest to the east of Honduras and Nicaragua in Central America, with a depth of about 500 meters, of which more than half is less than 200 meters. The seabed of the Caribbean Sea is Cenozoic sediments. Compared with deep-sea basins and trenches, most of them are red clay, and the platform is globigerina ooze, while the underwater mountains and continental slopes are pteropods ooze.
Most of the sea areas are located between north latitude 10 ~ 20, and belong to tropical climate. The northeast wind prevails all the year round, with high temperature and humidity, and the atmosphere is in an unstable state. Tropical storms occur in north-central China in June 6- 10/October every year165438+September with the highest frequency, and the wind speed can exceed 33.5m/s, with an average of 8 times a year, which has adverse effects on shipping. The sea current in the sea area is a powerful warm current formed by the confluence of the North Equatorial Current and the South Equatorial Current of the Atlantic Ocean after passing through the Lesser Antilles. It flows through the Caribbean Sea from east to west at a speed of 28 ~ 83 cm/s, and finally flows into the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan Strait. Due to the low latitude of the sea area and the influence of warm current, the surface water temperature of the sea water is high, often reaching 27 ~ 28℃, with a small change in winter and summer, ranging from 25.6 ~ 28.9℃. High temperature is beneficial to the reproduction of corals in shoals and volcanic island bases, so there are many coral reefs and coral islands in this sea area. The Caribbean Sea, especially the northwest coast of the South American continent, is affected by offshore winds to form an upwelling, bringing nutrients from seawater to the surface. It is suitable for plankton and fish breeding and has become an important fishing ground in Latin America, rich in tuna, turtles, sardines and lobsters. The southern part of the sea area is an oil-producing area. Caribbean Sea is a necessary sea area for transportation and trade routes between China and the United States, South America and North America. Since the opening of 1920, the Panama Canal has become an important sea passage connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, which has greatly promoted the economic development of more than 30 countries and regions along the Caribbean coast. The main ports are Caracas (Venezuela), Cologne (Panama), Kingston (Jamaica) and Williamstad (Netherlands Antilles).