Caribbean Sea

Ragged Point lighthouse on the east coast of Barbados. It is situated on the Atlantic coast at the most easterly point of the island.

The Dominican Republic makes up the eastern two thirds of the island of Hispaniola, in the Caribbean, and shares a border with Haiti. It has a tropical maritime climate, with average temperatures in the capital, Santo Domingo, ranging 19-29°C/66-84°F in January and 23-31°C/73-88°F in August.

Western part of the Atlantic Ocean between Cuba to the north and the northern coasts of South America to the south. Central America is to the west and to the east are the West Indies. The sea is about 2,740 km/1,700 mi long and 650-1,500 km/400-900 mi wide; area 2,640,000 sq km/1,019,304 sq mi. It is linked with the Gulf of Mexico via the Yucatan Strait. It is from here that the Gulf Stream turns towards Europe.

The Caribbean Sea was named after the Carib Indians who inhabited the area when it was reached by Spanish explorers, beginning with Christopher Columbus in 1492. It is a major maritime route for international shipping to and from the Panama Canal, and a trade route for oil, seafood, and tropical agricultural products. It is heavily polluted by untreated sewage, which destroys mangrove forests and coral reefs.

The Caribbean Sea is divided into five basins each reaching depths of over 3,000 m/9,840 ft; the deepest point is the Bartlett Deep in the Cayman Trench (7,100 m/23,290 ft) between Cuba and Jamaica. The Jamaica Ridge lies between Jamaica and Honduras; here the sea is mostly less than 1,000 m/3,280 ft deep. Channels linking the sea with the Atlantic Ocean are too shallow to allow much inflow of water. Hurricanes from the Atlantic enter the Caribbean Sea, especially during late summer, and cause widespread destruction.