The Caribbean Sea is located in the middle of the American continent. With South America down and North America in the up side, between 9º and 22º degrees North latitude. To the East is the Atlantic Ocean and to the West the Pacific, between longitude 60 ° and 89 ° West. Although El Salvador, the Bahamas and Bermuda do not properly belong to the basin of the Caribbean Sea, they are always included geographicaly, historicaly and culturaly to it.

The land section that borders the Caribbean Sea is composed at the East and North by a group of islands known as the West Indies, which are diferentiated in Major at the North and Minor Antillas to the East with an area of ​​ 91120 Mile². To the South it is limited by South America and to the West with Central America. The surface of the Caribbean Sea is about 1,063,000 Mile².

WATERSHED OF THE CARIBBEAN BASIN

The Basin of the Caribbean Sea is one of the largest in Earth, mainly thanks to the Magdalena River, 956.9 Miles long and a basin of 99397.4 Mile² in Colombia that go into the Caribbean Sea. Other rivers of importance are the Atrapo River (Colombia) with 466.0 Miles in length and a basin of 14865 Mile² empties into the Gulf of Uraba, San Juan River(124.3 Miles) of Nicaragua. Coco River fron Honduras wich is 422.5 Miles long and a water catchment of 9562.6 Mile². Motagua River born in Guatemala and on its way to the Caribbean Sea 301.9 Miles border with Honduras and covers a basin of 4891.9 Mile². All others rivers are short and fast, and in coastal lagoons mangroves are aboundant. 

The Caribbean Sea is characterized by it`s large number of islands, archipelagos, keys, shallow coral reef and sandy botton sea .

Other geographical features of importance are the Gulfs of Darien, Morrosquillo, Los Mosquitos and Gulf of Venezuela. Beteween the West Indies islands are many channels and straits among which it is included the Yucatan Strait, Los Vientos, La Mona and the very important Panamas Channel. The most importat peninsulas are the Yucatan Peninsula, La Guajira, Paraguana, Paria, etc. The notably Lake de Maracaibo of Venezuela flows into the Gulf of Venezuela, this lake is the largest of South America with an area of 5328.2 Mile².

UNDERSEA plateaus, basins, steep, ridges and pits

The morphology of the Caribbean seabed is divided into five basins, separated by transverse reliefs submarines that were formed in the Tertiary Era. The two largest basins or depressions are the eastern of Venezuela wich is separated from western of Colombia by Beata Ridge. At the easter of the first one are the minor one`s of Granada and Tobago separated by the chain of mountains that form the islands of the Lesser Antilles or West Indies. North of the Basin of Colombia wich is separated by the highs of Nicaragua and the Cayman Trench is the Yucatan Basin. The average depth of these basins is 9842.52 feet below sea level, with the exception of the basin of Venezuela which has depths of 16404.2 feet and higher. Moreover, the high of Nicaragua has a depth of1640.4 feet, while in the north is the Cayman Trench with a maximum depth of 25216.5 feet. Further east, south of the island of Puerto Rico it is the Muertos Trench where the depth is 16404.2 feet, while at the North of the Puerto Rico Trench depth is 30246.1 feet, these is the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean. In front of the northeast coast of Venezuela it is located de Fosa de Cariaco with a maximun depht of 4708.0 feet.

The emerging insular section corresponds to an underwater mountain range with several branches of which can be differentiated The Greater Antilles and in the northeaster line the Lesser Antilles, composed of sedimentary rocks of the Secondary Era that emerged above the sea level. The western and southern section of the Lesser Antilles are of recent volcanic origin with volcanic and seismic activity in the present. Besides the parallel islands of the northern coast of South America.

LAND SHAPE