The American Mediterranean Sea is a scientific name for the mediterranean dilution basin that includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The name, which has been employed particularly by German oceanographers, is not recognized by the International Hydrographic Organization, the United States Geological Survey or other international hydrological bodies.
The American Mediterranean has a surface area of 4,319,000 km2 and an average depth of .
Its basins include the Mexico Basin, the Cayman Trough, the Yucatan Basin, the Columbian Basin, the Venezuelan Basin and the Grenada Basin.French, C. D, and C. J. Schenk, USGS Open File Report 97-470-K, Map Showing Geology, Oil and Gas Fields, and Geologic Provinces of the Caribbean Region (large PDF file)
The American Mediterranean Sea is considered a semi-enclosed sea. In addition to numerous large and small groups of islands, small islands, and islets, it includes the large islands of Cuba, bordering the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. All of these islands are among the West Indian islands that separate the American Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean.
Between these islands, the American Mediterranean Sea contains the following straits: the Florida Straits, the Windward Passage (Paso de los Vientos), the Mona Passage (Canal de la Mona), the Anegada Passage to Guadeloupe Passage, and the Dominica Passage to Martinique Passage. Within the Mediterranean, the Straits of Yucatán connect the Gulf of Mexico with the Caribbean, and since the inauguration of the Panama Canal in August 1914, it has been connected to the Pacific.
Watershed
The American Mediterranean Sea drains approximately in North America and Caribbean South America; it is the 2nd largest sea watershed. The watershed depends on South American water bodies such as the Magdalena River with , as well as the Guajira Peninsula and the Gulf of Venezuela. Central American drainages include those of/to the Belize River, Gulf of Honduras, Caratasca Lagoon, Nicaraguan Caribbean Lowlands, and the Colorado River in Costa Rica. In North America, the sea mostly drains the Mississippi River basin of , to the east of the Continental Divide of the Americas, while it drains approximately from the Rio Grande and from the Yucatan Peninsula.www.britannica.com.
See also Mediterranean sea (oceanography)
References