Title: Caribbean Sea | Definition, Location, Map, Islands, & Facts | Britannica
Headings: Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
sea, Atlantic Ocean
Physical features
Geology
Physiography
Hydrology
Climate

Content: Caribbean Sea | Definition, Location, Map, Islands, & Facts | Britannica
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Caribbean Sea
sea, Atlantic Ocean
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WRITTEN BY
John C. Ogden See All Contributors
Director, Florida Institute of Oceanography, St. Petersburg. Professor of Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa. See Article History
Alternative Title: Antillean-Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea, suboceanic basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, lying between latitudes 9° and 22° N and longitudes 89° and 60° W. It is approximately 1,063,000 square miles (2,753,000 square km) 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 Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico; to the north by the Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico; and to the east by the north-south chain of the Lesser Antilles, 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. The Caribbean Sea Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Typical landscape in the Caribbean region.