CARIBBEAN SEA

suboceanic basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, situated north of the Equator in the Western Hemisphere and washing the northern coast of South America and the eastern coasts of Central America and part of Mexico. It covers an area of approximately 1,063,000 square miles (2,754,000 square km). To the south the Caribbean Sea is bounded by the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama; to the west by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatn Peninsula of Mexico; to the north by the Greater Antillean islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico; and to the east by the Lesser Antillean chain, composed of the island arc that extends from the Virgin Islands in the northeast to Trinidad, off the Venezuelan coast, in the southeast. The Yucatn Channel connects the sea with the Gulf of Mexico to the north. The Caribbean's greatest known depth is Cayman Trench (Bartlett Deep), located between Cuba and Jamaica, at approximately 25,216 feet (7,686 m) below sea level. The Caribbean Sea is divided into five submarine basins that are roughly elliptical in shape and separated from one another by submerged ridges and rises. These are the Yucatn, Cayman, Colombian, Venezuelan, and Grenada basins. 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 runs between Cuba and Hispaniola. The sill depth of the Anegada Passage is between 6,400 and 7,700 feet (1,950 and 2,350 m); the sill depth of the Windward Passage is from 5,250 to 5,350 feet (1,600 to 1,630 m). The climate of the Caribbean is generally tropical, but there are great local variations, depending on neighbouring mountain elevations, water currents, and the trade winds. Rainfall varies from 350 inches (8,890 mm) a year in parts of Dominica to about 10 inches (254 mm) annually on the island of Bonaire, off the coast of Venezuela. 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 Sea during Paleozoic times (from about 540 to 245 million years ago) and then gradually to have separated from it as the Atlantic was formed. The economies of the Caribbean countries are greatly dependent upon tourism. With its sunny climate and recreational resources, the region has become one of the world's principal winter vacation resort areas, particularly for the peoples of the United States and Canada to the north and Brazil and Argentina to the south. The Caribbean Sea. suboceanic basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, lying between 9 to 22 N and 89 to 60 W. It is approximately 1,063,000 square miles (2,754,000 square kilometres) 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 Yucatn Peninsula of Mexico; to the north by the Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico; and to the east by the Lesser Antilles chain, 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 Mediterraneanowing 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, at approximately 25,216 feet (7,686 metres) below sea level. Additional reading Caribbean marine science is the focus of a special issue of Oceanus, vol. 30, no. 4 (Winter 1987/88). Fauna and fishery resources are discussed in Susan M. Wells, Coral Reefs of the World, vol. 1, Atlantic and Eastern Pacific (1988); James Cribb, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, and Thomas H. Suchanek, Marine Life of the Caribbean (1984); and J.L. Munro (ed.), Caribbean Coral Reef Fishery Resources, 2nd ed. (1983). The history of the area is chronicled in Germn Arciniegas, Caribbean, Sea of the New World (1946); and W. Adolphe Roberts, The Caribbean (1940, reissued 1969). John C. Ogden