97 Fun Facts About Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea lies southwest of which sea, famous for its floating seaweed?

The Sargasso Sea, the only sea bounded by currents rather than land, lies in the North Atlantic northeast of the Caribbean and is named for the floating sargassum seaweed that gathers there.

Which is the largest island in the Caribbean Sea?

Cuba, at roughly 110,000 square kilometres, is the largest Caribbean island; Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, is second at about 76,000.

The Greater Antilles form the sea's northern boundary, running from Cuba east to which island?

The Lesser Antilles then take over, curving south from the Virgin Islands.

Roughly how large is the Caribbean Sea?

The Caribbean Sea covers about 2,750,000 square kilometres, making it one of the largest seas on Earth, larger than the Mediterranean's roughly 2,500,000.

What is the deepest point of the Caribbean Sea?

The Cayman Trough, between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, reaches about 7,686 metres, the deepest point in the Caribbean Sea.

The transform fault of the sea's deepest trough continues onshore into Guatemala as which fault system?

The Polochic-Motagua fault system in Guatemala is the onshore continuation of the Swan Islands transform fault that bounds the Cayman Trough; the trough itself contains the slowly spreading Mid-Cayman Rise.

Which barrier reef, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, runs along Central America's Caribbean coast?

The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, also called the Great Mayan Reef, stretches about 1,000 km from Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula to Honduras and is the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere.

Which four countries does the Great Mayan Reef run along?

The reef runs about 1,000 km along Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, from Isla Contoy off the tip of the Yucatán to the Bay Islands of Honduras.

The Belize Barrier Reef was declared a World Heritage Site in which year?

UNESCO inscribed the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System in 1996; its seven protected areas cover about 963 square kilometres of the Mesoamerican reef.

Which strait between Cuba and Haiti lets Atlantic water into the Caribbean?

The Windward Passage, about 80 km wide between eastern Cuba and northwestern Haiti, is a main Atlantic entry to the Caribbean and lies on the Panama Canal to US east coast shipping route.

The Yucatán Channel links the Caribbean Sea with which body of water?

The Yucatán Channel, about 217 km wide between Cuba and Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, joins the Caribbean Sea to the Gulf of Mexico and is nearly 2,800 metres deep near the Cuban coast.

The Mona Passage separates which two islands?

It was the site of a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 1918.

The Anegada Passage separates the British Virgin Islands from which island?

Sombrero, a flat uninhabited rock belonging to Anguilla, lies across the Anegada Passage from the British Virgin Islands; the strait, about 2,300 metres deep, is the main deep-water route between the Atlantic and the eastern Caribbean.

Into how many basins is the Caribbean seafloor divided?

Five basins make up the seafloor: the Yucatán, Cayman, Colombian, Venezuelan and Grenada basins, separated by underwater ridges such as the Beata Ridge and the Aves Ridge.

Which Colombian archipelago in the western Caribbean lies far closer to Nicaragua than to Colombia?

San Andrés, with Providencia and Santa Catalina, forms a Colombian department about 230 km east of Nicaragua and over 700 km from mainland Colombia; the International Court of Justice upheld Colombia's sovereignty in 2012.

The Cayman Trough marks the Caribbean Plate's boundary with which other tectonic plate?

The Cayman Trough lies along the transform boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates, which slide past each other at about two centimetres a year.

The Caribbean Sea is estimated to be how old?

The Caribbean Sea is thought to be 160 to 180 million years old, formed when a horizontal fracture split the supercontinent Pangaea during the Mesozoic Era.

Pressure from which tectonic plate to the east gives the Lesser Antilles their volcanic activity?

The South American Plate, subducting westward beneath the Caribbean Plate, fuels the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc; Mount Pelée's 1902 eruption on Martinique killed about 28,000 people.

Kick 'em Jenny, an active submarine volcano, lies 8 km north of which island?

Kick 'em Jenny, an active submarine volcano whose summit lies under 200 metres below the surface, sits about 8 km north of Grenada; its first recorded eruption sent steam 275 metres into the air.

In which year was Kick 'em Jenny first recorded erupting, generating two-metre tsunamis on nearby coasts?

Kick 'em Jenny's first recorded eruption came in July 1939, breaking the surface and sending waves about two metres high onto Grenada's north coast and the southern Grenadines; the name earlier referred to a nearby rock.

How many magnitude-7.5+ earthquakes hit the Caribbean in the 500 years before 2010?

About a dozen earthquakes of magnitude 7.5 or greater struck the Caribbean region in the five centuries to 2010; the 12 January 2010 Haiti quake, though only magnitude 7.0, killed at least 100,000 people.

By roughly how much do the Caribbean's monthly mean surface temperatures vary across the year?

Monthly average surface temperatures vary by no more than about 3 °C over the year, from roughly 25.5 °C in winter to 28 °C in summer, a mark of the sea's highly homogeneous hydrology.

Which ocean current, entering from the tropical Atlantic, chiefly drives the Caribbean's climate?

The North Equatorial Current, entering from the tropical Atlantic, is the principal current; with the warm, moist easterly trade winds it produces climates from rainforest to semi-arid around the sea.

Which warm current runs northwest along South America's coast to feed the Caribbean Current?

The Guiana Current flows northwest along the coasts of Brazil and the Guianas, carrying South Equatorial Current water into the Caribbean Sea, where it merges with North Equatorial flow to form the Caribbean Current.

Cool upwelling keeps which islands arid?

Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, the ABC islands off Venezuela, are arid partly because trade-wind-driven upwelling of cool water along South America's coast suppresses rainfall; each averages under 600 mm a year.

The Caribbean hurricane season runs during which months?

The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from 1 June to 30 November, and most Caribbean hurricanes strike in August and September.

Per the National Hurricane Center, how many hurricanes struck the Caribbean from 1494 to 1900?

The National Hurricane Center counts 385 hurricanes in the Caribbean between 1494 and 1900; most form off West Africa and track west across the Atlantic, while some develop within the sea itself.

The Caribbean is home to roughly what share of the world's coral reefs?

About 9% of the world's coral reefs lie in the Caribbean, covering roughly 50,000 square kilometres, mostly around the islands and along the Central American coast.

Coral bleaching happens when warm water kills off which symbiotic organisms living inside coral polyps?

Zooxanthellae, single-celled algae living in coral tissue, supply most of the coral's food and its colour; when water warms, corals expel them and turn white.

The Cartagena Convention protecting the Wider Caribbean's marine environment was adopted in which year?

The Cartagena Convention was adopted on 24 March 1983 in Cartagena, Colombia, and entered into force in 1986; its three protocols cover oil spills, protected areas and land-based pollution.

Approximately how many species of fish have been documented in the Caribbean Sea?

About 1,000 fish species have been documented in the Caribbean, including bull, tiger, silky and Caribbean reef sharks, tarpon and the Atlantic goliath grouper.

Caribbean marine life includes Indian and Pacific ocean species trapped when which land bridge rose from the sea?

The Isthmus of Panama closed around three million years ago, cutting the tropical seaway and isolating Pacific and Indian Ocean lineages inside the Caribbean.

Which regional marine mammal, last seen in 1952, was declared extinct by the US in 2008?

The Caribbean monk seal, hunted for its oil and meat, was last seen at Serranilla Bank in 1952; the US government declared it extinct in 2008 after a five-year review.

Caribbean green turtle numbers fell from about 91 million to roughly how many by 2006?

A 2006 study estimated Caribbean green turtles had fallen from about 91 million before European contact to roughly 300,000, while hawksbills crashed from 11 million to under 30,000.

The hawksbill has long been hunted for a luxury material sold under what name?

Hawksbill shell plates were traded as tortoiseshell for combs, spectacles and inlay; in Japan the material is called bekko, and CITES banned international trade in 1977.

Which invasive fish spread through the Caribbean, possibly after Hurricane Andrew wrecked a Florida aquarium?

Lionfish, Indo-Pacific natives, were first found off Dania Beach, Florida, in 1985; a popular story blames Hurricane Andrew wrecking a seaside aquarium in 1992 for seeding the Atlantic invasion.

The queen conch, a giant Caribbean sea snail, was long known by which scientific name?

Linnaeus named the queen conch Strombus gigas in 1758; it was moved to Lobatus in 2008 and then to the genus Aliger in 2020, within the true conch family Strombidae.

How many species of mammals are found in the Caribbean?

About 90 mammal species live in the Caribbean region, from sperm whales, humpback whales and dolphins to land mammals found nowhere else, such as solenodons and hutias.

The sargassum that has piled onto Caribbean beaches since 2011 is what kind of organism?

Sargassum is a brown alga (class Phaeophyceae) kept afloat by gas-filled bladders; since 2011 vast rafts from the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, first mapped by satellite, have smothered Caribbean beaches.

The Great Blue Hole, a marine sinkhole 318 metres across, lies near the centre of which small atoll?

The Great Blue Hole sits near the centre of Lighthouse Reef, about 70 km off Belize City; Jacques Cousteau surveyed it from the Calypso in 1971 and rated it among the world's top dive sites.

How deep is the Great Blue Hole?

The Great Blue Hole is about 124 metres deep; stalactites inside show it formed as a dry limestone cave during ice-age low sea levels before rising seas flooded it.

Bonaire National Marine Park, one of the world's oldest marine reserves, was established in which year?

Established in 1979, Bonaire National Marine Park protects the waters around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire from the high-water line down to 60 metres, making it one of the world's oldest marine reserves.

Isla de Aves, a Venezuelan guano island in the eastern Caribbean, is never wider than what?

Isla de Aves is just 375 metres long and never more than 50 metres wide, rising about four metres above a calm sea, which is why its status as an island or a mere rock is disputed.

The Gulf of Venezuela connects the Caribbean Sea to which oil-rich lake through a 54 km strait?

Lake Maracaibo, the heart of Venezuela's oil industry, opens to the Gulf of Venezuela through a strait about 54 km long; Colombia and Venezuela have long disputed the gulf's maritime boundary.

The Panama Canal, linking the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific, opened in which year?

The Panama Canal opened on 15 August 1914; by 2008 some 14,702 vessels a year were transiting between the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Europeans called the Caribbean the North Sea to distinguish it from which South Sea?

Spanish mapmakers called the Caribbean the Mar del Norte, the North Sea, while the Pacific beyond the Isthmus of Panama, first sighted by Balboa in 1513, was the Mar del Sur or South Sea.

How many species of birds have been recorded in the Caribbean, 163 of them endemic?

About 600 bird species have been recorded in the Caribbean, 163 of them endemic, including the todies, Fernandina's flicker and the palmchat; 48 species are threatened with extinction.

Which pirate's ship was the forty-gun Queen Anne's Revenge?

Blackbeard, Edward Teach, captured the French slaver La Concorde in 1717 and renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge, mounting some forty guns before running her aground off North Carolina in 1718.

Rum, the region's famous drink, is first mentioned in records from which island around 1650?

A Barbados document of about 1651 is the first known mention, calling the spirit 'Rumbullion, alias Kill-Devil'; rum was probably already being distilled on other sugar islands.

As of 2015, how many island territories does the Caribbean Sea area contain, plus 12 continental countries?

As of 2015 the Caribbean Sea area held 22 island territories and was bordered by 12 continental countries, from Mexico and Belize round Central America to Colombia and Venezuela.

Which group of the Lesser Antilles lies in the south of the arc?

The Windward Islands, including Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenada, form the southern Lesser Antilles; the Leeward Islands lie to the north and the Leeward Antilles run west along the Venezuelan coast.

Which island of the Greater Antilles is the most populated?

It is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic; Cuba is the largest island in area.

Which small Baltic duchy was among the European powers that colonised Caribbean islands after Spain?

The Duchy of Courland, in today's Latvia, founded a colony on Tobago in 1654; England, the Dutch Republic, France and Denmark also seized islands after the first century of Spanish dominance.

By what alternative name, derived from a Spanish term, was the Caribbean Sea known in various European languages?

The Sea of the Antilles, from the Spanish Antillas for the islands, survives in French (Mer des Antilles) and German (Antillenmeer); Antillia was a mythical Atlantic island on maps before Columbus.

What is the approximate salinity of Caribbean seawater?

Caribbean seawater is about 3.6% salt, a shade above the open-ocean average of roughly 3.5%; surface colour runs from blue-green to green, and Atlantic deep water spills in through the passages.

Roughly how many plant species grow in the Caribbean, about half of them endemic?

Roughly 13,000 plant species grow in the Caribbean, some 6,500 of them found nowhere else, including the Bayahibe rose, a cactus that is the Dominican Republic's national flower.

Which timber tree is the national tree of both Belize and the Dominican Republic?

Mahogany is the national tree of both Belize and the Dominican Republic; its dense reddish timber, shipped from Jamaica and Belize, made the finest 18th-century English furniture.

In 1993, roughly what share of sewage from Central American and Caribbean island countries was properly treated?

A 1993 survey found only about 10% of sewage from Central American and Caribbean island countries received proper treatment; the sea's fisheries land some 500,000 tonnes a year despite the pollution.

Hydrothermal vents found nearly 5,000 metres down in the Cayman Trough in 2010 honour which explorer?

The Beebe Vent Field, named for naturalist William Beebe, who pioneered deep dives in his bathysphere, lies nearly 5,000 metres down in the Cayman Trough and displaced the Mid-Atlantic's Ashadze field as the deepest known vents.

Port Royal, the 'wickedest city in the world', largely sank in an earthquake in which year?

The earthquake of 7 June 1692 dropped two-thirds of Port Royal into the harbour; a pocket watch recovered in 1959 had stopped at about 11:43, fixing the moment.

Which Spanish treasure galleon, sunk off Cartagena in 1708, was finally located in 2015?

The San José, blown up by a British squadron in 1708 with gold and silver aboard, was found about 600 metres down in 2015; Spain claims her as a warship, Colombia as national patrimony.

Which 2005 hurricane deepened over the Caribbean to a central pressure of 882 mbar?

Hurricane Wilma bottomed out at 882 mbar on 19 October 2005, the lowest pressure measured in the Atlantic basin to that date; its eye shrank to about 3.7 km across and the pressure fell 97 mbar in a single day.

After Hurricane Hattie flattened Belize City in 1961, the capital was moved to which inland site?

Belmopan, built about 80 km inland, became the capital in 1970 after Hattie's storm tide of up to 14 feet swept through sea-level Belize City; Jimmy Cliff's breakthrough single was named after the storm.

The deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record swept the Lesser Antilles in which year?

The Great Hurricane of October 1780 killed an estimated 22,000 people from Barbados to Sint Eustatius and wrecked much of the British fleet in the middle of the American Revolutionary War.

Which capital city was buried when Montserrat's Soufrière Hills volcano erupted from 1995?

Plymouth, Montserrat's capital, was abandoned in 1997 after pyroclastic flows from the Soufrière Hills volcano buried most of the town; about two-thirds of the island's population left, and Brades became the working capital.

RMS Rhone, a famous wreck dive, sank in an 1867 hurricane off Salt Island in which territory?

Salt Island lies in the British Virgin Islands; the Rhone was anchored off Peter Island instead of her usual St Thomas stop because of a yellow fever outbreak when the hurricane struck on 29 October 1867.

Grenada's bronze Christ of the Abyss thanks islanders for rescuing passengers of which ship?

The Bianca C, a 180-metre Italian liner, caught fire and sank off Grenada in October 1961; her owners, Costa Line, gave the statue in thanks, and the wreck's upper decks lie about 30 metres down off St George's.

Cubans call the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs landing by the name of which beach?

Playa Girón, the main landing beach, gives the battle its Cuban name; Brigade 2506, some 1,400 CIA-trained exiles, landed on 17 April 1961 and surrendered within three days, on 20 April.

Guinness named which inlet on Vieques the world's brightest bioluminescent bay in 2006?

Mosquito Bay, on Vieques's south coast, owes its Guinness title to dense populations of the dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense, which flash neon blue whenever the water is disturbed.

Which sculptor created the world's first underwater sculpture park, off Grenada, in 2006?

Jason deCaires Taylor's Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park opened in 2006; its best-known piece, Vicissitudes, is a ring of life-size children holding hands, and it draws snorkellers away from fragile natural reefs.

Stingray City, where visitors pet wild southern stingrays on a sandbar, is in which territory?

The rays are thought to have gathered after fishermen cleaned their catch in the calm shallows and the animals learned that engine noise meant food.

Saba Bank, the Atlantic's largest submarine atoll, is a national park of which country?

Lying entirely underwater a few kilometres south of Saba, it covers more than 2,400 square kilometres, the largest protected nature area in the Netherlands.

Navassa Island, held by the US under the Guano Islands Act, is also claimed by which country?

Haiti, whose coast lies about 55 km east of Navassa, protested at once and has maintained its claim; sea captain Peter Duncan claimed the island for its guano in 1857, and President Buchanan backed him the following year.

Willemstad's Queen Emma Bridge, which swings aside for ships, is what type of bridge?

The Queen Emma Bridge floats on 16 pontoons; opened in 1888, it once charged a toll that barefoot walkers were spared, and free ferries carry pedestrians across whenever it swings open.

Sailing with Ojeda in 1499, Vespucci named a coast 'Little Venice' after seeing what?

Veneziola became Venezuela in Spanish, though one crew member claimed the name came from a local people called the Veneciuela.

Nueva Cádiz, a Spanish town founded on tiny Cubagua off Venezuela by 1515, grew rich on what?

Nueva Cádiz grew rich on pearls from Cubagua's oyster beds, which were exhausted within decades; by 1539 fewer than 50 people remained, and an earthquake and storm in 1541 finished the town.

A resident group of which whales lives off Dominica all year round?

Spinner, spotted and bottlenose dolphins are also common there, making the island a whale-watching destination.

The IWC's 2019 to 2025 quota let Bequia's whalers take how many humpback whales a year?

The IWC allowed St Vincent and the Grenadines 28 humpbacks for 2019 to 2025, four a year; whaling came to Bequia with Yankee whalers in the 1800s, and the quota was rarely met.

More than 97% of which Caribbean reef grazer died in a 1983 mass mortality?

The long-spined sea urchin Diadema antillarum lost over 97% of its population to an unidentified pathogen in 1983 and 1984; without its grazing, leafy macroalgae overgrew many reefs and coral cover fell further.

Acropora palmata, a key Caribbean reef-builder, is commonly named after which animal's antlers?

Acropora palmata is elkhorn coral, its flattened branches resembling elk antlers; its population fell by more than 90% after 1980, and it was listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act in 2006.

The dominant seagrass of Caribbean shallows, spreading mainly by underground rhizomes, is commonly called what?

Turtle grass, Thalassia testudinum, spreads mainly by underground rhizomes, so whole meadows can be clones; it is named for the green turtles that graze it and cannot survive in fresh water.

Which Caribbean crustacean marches in single-file lines of hundreds across the seabed in autumn?

Caribbean spiny lobsters form single-file queues after the first autumn storms, hundreds moving to deeper water while keeping contact with their antennae; the reason for the march is not fully understood.

Nassau groupers gather by the thousand to spawn in December and January, timed to what?

Nassau groupers aggregate around the full moon in December and January; fishing those predictable gatherings helped push the species to critically endangered status, and Glover's Reef off Belize holds one of the last strong sites.

Which Welsh privateer sacked Panama City in 1671 and later became lieutenant governor of Jamaica?

Henry Morgan's raid broke a fresh Anglo-Spanish peace treaty, so he was arrested and shipped to London in 1672, where he was feted, knighted in 1674 and sent back as Jamaica's lieutenant governor.

Which English privateer was buried at sea in a lead-lined coffin off Panama in 1596?

Francis Drake died of dysentery on 28 January 1596 after a failed attack on Panama and was buried at sea off Portobelo in a lead coffin, dressed in full armour; divers have searched for it ever since.

Who led the Spanish defence of Cartagena de Indias against Admiral Vernon's huge 1741 expedition?

Blas de Lezo, a one-eyed, one-legged veteran, planned to stall until the late-April rains; disease and downpours then drove Vernon's force, which lost over 9,500 men, back to Jamaica by mid-May 1741.

Which British admiral beat de Grasse at the 1782 Battle of the Saintes, fought off Dominica?

The win scuppered a Franco-Spanish plan to invade Jamaica, and Rodney is often credited with pioneering the tactic of breaking the enemy line.

Which long spit, home to Norman Manley International Airport, shelters Kingston Harbour?

The Palisadoes, a tombolo of sand and mangrove about 18 km long, nearly landlocks Kingston Harbour; Port Royal sits at its tip and Norman Manley International Airport lies along it.

Panama's island-studded Caribbean province of Guna Yala was formerly known by what name?

The comarca was called San Blas until 1998; the Guna won autonomy after an armed rebellion in February 1925, and the spelling later changed from Kuna to Guna to better match their own language.

In July 2024, Hurricane Beryl made its first landfall as a Category 4 on which Grenadine island?

Beryl struck Carriacou on 1 July 2024, damaging or destroying about 98% of its buildings, and hours later became the earliest Category 5 the Atlantic had ever recorded.

Record-setting Hurricane Gilbert made a Category 5 landfall in 1988 on which Mexican island?

Gilbert crossed Cozumel as a Category 5 on 14 September 1988, two days after raking Jamaica end to end; its 888 mbar central pressure stood as the Atlantic record for 17 years.

Which author wrote all his Bond novels at Goldeneye, his clifftop home on Jamaica's north coast?

Ian Fleming built Goldeneye near Oracabessa in 1946 and wrote every Bond novel there each winter; Dr. No and Live and Let Die were filmed nearby, and Sting wrote Every Breath You Take at Fleming's desk in 1982.

In 1962 Kennedy avoided the word 'blockade' and called the naval cordon of Cuba a what?

Kennedy chose 'quarantine' because a blockade is legally an act of war; Washington won OAS approval under the Rio Treaty, and Argentine and Venezuelan warships joined the cordon.

What was the US codename for the October 1983 invasion of Grenada?

Operation Urgent Fury began on 25 October 1983, six days after the execution of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop; Grenada marks the date with a public holiday called Thanksgiving Day.

The buccaneers based on Tortuga off Hispaniola in the 1600s called themselves what?

The Brethren of the Coast was the loose, code-bound brotherhood of French and English buccaneers on Tortuga and later Port Royal; Columbus had named the island in 1492 because its outline reminded him of a turtle's shell.

The Pitons, twin volcanic spires rising from the sea near Soufrière, stand on which island?

The Pitons stand on Saint Lucia's southwest coast near Soufrière; Gros Piton rises 798 metres and can be hiked without ropes, and the pair with 2,909 surrounding hectares became a World Heritage Site in 2004.

Stranded in Jamaica in 1504, Columbus kept his men fed by correctly predicting what?

Columbus, beached at St Ann's Bay since June 1503, used an almanac to forecast the lunar eclipse of 29 February 1504 and warned the Taíno that God would darken the moon unless food supplies resumed.