The Mediterranean Sea refers to the vast body of water between Asia, Africa and Europe. It is the largest intercontinental sea in the world. The earliest Jews and ancient Greeks simply called it "the sea" or "the sea". Because ancient people only knew that this sea was located between three continents, it was called the "Mediterranean Sea". The spellings in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian come from the Latin Mare Mediterraneum, where "medi" means "between", "terra" means "land", and the full name means "the sea in the middle of the land". The name first appeared in ancient books in the 3rd century AD. In the 7th century AD, the Spanish writer Isil first used the Mediterranean as a geographical name.
The three major peninsulas of Southern Europe and islands such as Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica divide the Mediterranean Sea into several small sea areas: the Ligurian Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the Admiralty Sea. The Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea, the Aegean Sea, etc.
The Mediterranean Sea occupies an important position both in transportation and strategy. It leads to the Atlantic Ocean via the Strait of Gibraltar to the west, the Black Sea via the Turkish Strait to the northeast, and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal to the southeast. It is an important waterway between Europe, Asia and Africa, and an important channel for communication between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean.
Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
The Atlantic Ocean is a sea. It is located between the South American continent, the Central American Isthmus and the Greater and Lesser Antilles. It is named after the Caribbean Indians who originally lived in the area. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Strait to the northwest, and to the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east through the Windward Channel, Mona Strait and a series of straits between the Greater and Lesser Antilles. It is 2,800 kilometers long from east to west, 1,400 kilometers wide from north to south, and covers an area of ??2.754 million square kilometers. The average water depth is 2,491 meters and the maximum water depth is 7,680 meters, making it one of the deepest intercontinental seas in the world.
The crust in the ocean area is very unstable, surrounded by deep ocean trenches and volcanic seismic zones. The seabed is divided into two parts by the broad Jamaica Ridge; in the west there are the Yucatan Basin and the Cayman Trench, which are separated by the submarine mountains extending westward from the Maestra Mountains of Cuba Island. The submarine mountains are composed of peaks exposed above the sea. Big and Little Cayman and other islands. The depth of the Yucatan Basin is about 4,000 meters, the average depth of the Cayman Trench is 5,000 to 6,000 meters, and the deepest point reaches 7,680 meters. The eastern part is divided into the Colombian Basin and the Venezuelan Basin by the Beata Ridge, which runs northeast to southwest. The average depth of the Colombian Sea Basin is about 3,000 meters, with the deepest point being 4,535 meters; the average depth of the Venezuelan Sea Basin is about 4,500 meters, with the deepest point reaching 5,630 meters. The Jamaica Ridge extends southwest from Haiti and Jamaica to the east of Honduras and Nicaragua in Central America. The depth is generally about 500 meters, and more than half of it is less than 200 meters deep. The seafloor of the Caribbean Sea is composed of Cenozoic sediments, the deeper basins and trenches are mostly red clay, the ocean floor is composed of coccidial ooze, and the submarine mountains and continental slopes are composed of pteropod ooze.
Most of the sea area is located between 10° and 20° north latitude, with a tropical climate. Northeasterly winds prevail throughout the year, with high temperatures, humidity, and an unstable atmosphere. Tropical storms occur in the north and middle from June to November every year, and are most frequent in September. The wind speed can exceed 33.5 meters/second, occurring an average of 8 times a year, causing adverse effects on shipping. The current in the sea area is a powerful warm current formed by the convergence of parts of the North Equatorial Current and the South Equatorial Current in the Atlantic Ocean after passing through the Lesser Antilles. It flows from east to west throughout the Caribbean Sea at a speed of 28 to 83 cm/second, and finally flows from The Yucatan Strait flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Due to the low latitude of the sea area and the influence of warm currents, the surface water temperature of seawater is high, often reaching 27~28℃, with a small change range in winter and summer, ranging from 25.6~28.9℃. The high temperature is conducive to the reproduction of coral polyps in shoals and volcanic island bases, so there are many coral reefs and coral islands distributed in the sea area. The Caribbean Sea, especially the northwestern coast of the South American continent, is affected by offshore winds and forms upwellings, which bring nutrients from the sea to the surface, making it suitable for plankton and fish breeding. It has become an important fishing ground in Latin America, rich in tuna, sea turtles, sardines, lobsters, etc. The southern part of the sea area is an oil producing area. The Caribbean Sea is a must-pass sea area for transportation and trade routes between Central America and South and North America. Since the opening of the Panama Canal in 1920, it has become an important sea channel connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, greatly promoting the development of more than 30 countries and regions along the Caribbean Sea. economic development. The main ports are Caracas (Venezuela), Colon (Panama), Kingston (Jamaica) and Willemstad (Netherlands Antilles).
Reference materials: http://202.205.177.137/science/dili/2/7.htm