Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea
Satellite image of the Caribbean Sea
Map of the Caribbean Sea
Location	American Mediterranean Sea
Coordinates	15°N 75°W / 15°N 75°W / 15; -75
Type	Sea
Part of	Atlantic Ocean
River sources	Magdalena Atrato Chagres San Juan Coco Motagua
Basin countries	List  Antigua and Barbuda  Aruba  Belize  British Virgin Islands  Caribbean Netherlands  Colombia  Costa Rica  Cuba  Curaçao  Dominica  Dominican Republic  Grenada  Guadeloupe  Guatemala  Haiti  Honduras  Jamaica  Mexico  Montserrat  Martinique  Nicaragua  Panama  Puerto Rico  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Saint Lucia  Trinidad and Tobago  United States Virgin Islands  Venezuela
Surface area	2,754,000 km2 (1,063,000 sq mi)
Max. depth	7,686 m (25,217 ft)
Islands	West Indies (Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles)
Trenches	Cayman Trench and Puerto Rico Trench
Settlements	Major cities Barcelona Barranquilla Basse-Terre Belize City Bluefields Brades Caimanera Cancún Cartagena Castries Catia La Mar Chaguanas Charlotte Amalie Chetumal Colón Couva Cumaná Guantánamo Havana Kingston Kingstown Kralendijk La Ceiba La Guaira Limón Little Bay Maiquetía Maracaibo Maracay Mayagüez Montego Bay Oranjestad Ponce Porlamar Port-au-Prince Port of Spain Puerto Barrios Puerto Cabello Puerto Cortes Puerto Padre Puerto la Cruz Punto Fijo Riohacha Roseau San Andrés San Juan San Fernando Santa Marta Santiago de Cuba Santiago de los Caballeros Santo Domingo Scarborough St. George's St. John's Turbo Willemstad

The Caribbean Sea^[1] is a sea of the North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba to Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles to the east from the Virgin Islands to Trinidad and Tobago, South America to the south from the Venezuelan coastline to the Colombian coastline, and Central America and the Yucatán Peninsula to the west from Panama to Mexico. The geopolitical region centered around the Caribbean Sea, including the numerous islands of the West Indies and adjacent coastal areas in the mainland of the Americas, is known as the Caribbean.

The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas on Earth and has an area of about 2,754,000 km² (1,063,000 sq mi).^[2][3] The sea's deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m (25,217 ft) below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays: the Gulf of Gonâve, the Gulf of Venezuela, the Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, the Gulf of Paria and the Gulf of Honduras.

The Caribbean Sea has the world's second-largest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. It runs 1,000 km (620 mi) along the Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras^[4] coasts.