American Mediterranean Sea

American Mediterranean Sea
Composite satellite image of the American Mediterranean Sea
American Mediterranean Sea
Location	The Americas
Coordinates	18°N 80°W / 18°N 80°W / 18; -80
Type	Sea
Basin countries	List  Anguilla  Antigua and Barbuda  Aruba  Bahamas  Barbados  Belize  British Virgin Islands  Caribbean Netherlands  Cayman Islands  Colombia  Costa Rica  Cuba  Curaçao  Dominica  Dominican Republic  Grenada  Guadeloupe  Guatemala  Haiti  Honduras  Jamaica  Martinique  Mexico  Montserrat  Nicaragua  Panama  Puerto Rico  Saint Barthélemy  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  Saint Martin  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Sint Maarten  Trinidad and Tobago  Turks and Caicos Islands  United States  United States Virgin Islands  Venezuela
Surface area	4,200,000 km2 (1,600,000 sq mi)
Average depth	2,216 m (7,270 ft)
Max. depth	7,686 m (25,217 ft)
Islands	1100+
Settlements	List Barranquilla Barcelona Beaumont Cancun Cartagena Colón Corpus Christi Cumaná Havana Houston Maracaibo Miami Mobile New Orleans San Juan Santa Marta Santo Domingo Tampa Veracruz

The American Mediterranean Sea is a scientific name for the mediterranean dilution basin which includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.^{[1]: 15, 35, 637–643 [2]} The name, which has been employed particularly by German oceanographers, is not recognized by the USGS, the International Hydrographic Organization or other international hydrological bodies.^{[citation needed]}

The American Mediterranean has a surface area of 4.319 million km² and an average depth of 2,216 metres (7,270 ft).^[1]

Its basins include the Mexico Basin, the Cayman Trough, the Yucatan Basin, the Columbian Basin, the Venezuelan basin and the Grenada basin.^[3][1][4]

The American Mediterranean is considered one of the oceanic marginal seas. In addition to numerous small islands, large and small groups of islands, and islets, it includes the large islands of Cuba, bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean; of Jamaica, Hispaniola, and of Puerto Rico. All of these islands are among the West Indian islands that separate the American Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean.

Between the 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, the Dominica Passage to Martinique Passage, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent. Within the Mediterranean, the Straits of Yucatán to the Gulf of Mexico connect with the Caribbean, and by the Panama Canal, built in the 20th century, it is connected to the Pacific.

The American Mediterranean Sea drains approximately 6,200,000 km² (2,400,000 sq mi) 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 257,440 km² (99,397 sq mi), 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 3,202,230 km² (1,236,388 sq mi), to the east of the Continental Divide of the Americas, while it drains approximately 610,000 km² (235,000 sq mi) from the Rio Grande and 198,000 km² (76,300 sq mi) from the Yucatan Peninsula.^[5]

• Intra-Americas Sea
• Ocean
• Sea
• Mediterranean sea (oceanography)