# data[].attributes.body
http://www.cubacurrency.com/Caribbean-Countries-Currency.html

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-thunderstorms.htm

# data[].attributes.body
http://traveltips.usatoday.com/physical-landforms-caribbean-islands-105228.html

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-rain.htm

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-hurricane.htm

# data[].attributes.body
http://lifeofplant.blogspot.com/2011/10/caribbean-agriculture.html

http://wizznotes.com/pob/factors-of-production/industries-developed-from-natural-resources-in-the-caribbean

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.geography-site.co.uk/pages/countries/climate/caribbean_climate.html

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.wondermondo.com/Caribbean.htm

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Caribbean region is home not only to some of the world's most famous and beautiful beaches and beach resorts, but also to a great diversity of ethnicities and countries. Although many people today regard the Caribbean as a much sought-for vacation destination, the Caribbean has offered much more to the world. Sugar cane, rum, exotic fruit and spices, cocktail recipes, pirate stories, calypso, reggae are just a small part of the Caribbean people's gifts to the world. Also, there are many famous people from the Caribbean about whose native lands you might not be aware of. Here's a list with Caribbean celebrities from all times:

Bob Marley

The king of reggae and one of the most famous Jamaicans in history, Bob Marley needs no further introduction. With his iconic dread locks, highly influential music and precocious death, Bob Marley has become one of 20st century's most popular musicians. Today, people from all corners of the world continue to listen to the tunes of 'No woman, no cry', 'Rocksteady' or 'Buffalo Solider'.

Rihanna

Maybe not as famous or influential as Bob Marley, but certainly one of the hottest stars of the moment is Rihanna, a native from Barbados. Rihanna moves to the Unites States when she was only 16 and started one of the most successful careers in contemporary R&B.

Saint-John Perse

Maybe not as popular as the above mentioned celebrities, Saint-John Perse was born in a French family in Guadeloupe, but spend much of his lifetime traveling around the world as a diplomat. For his poetry volumes Saint-John Perse was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature, making him of the several prominent Caribbean figures who have been awarded with this distinction.

Fidel Castro

A socialist revolutionary and leader of Cuba for many, many years, Fidel Castro is probably the most famous of all Caribbean politicians. Some see him as a dictator, some as a hero, but what's certain about Fidel Castro is that his part in the history of Cuba and the Cold War cannot be denied.

Sydney Poitier

Even though he was born in Miami, Sydney Poitier spent his childhood in the Bahamas, where both his parents lived. Later, he moved to the USA to work on his acting career, and in the early 60s he became the first black person to win an Oscar. During his acting career Poitiers starred in several dozens movies. He was also worked as a diplomat in Japan, where he represented his native country, Bahamas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Caribbean region is home not only to some of the world's most famous and beautiful beaches and beach resorts, but also to a great diversity of ethnicities and countries. Although many people today regard the Caribbean as a much sought-for vacation destination, the Caribbean has offered much more to the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Caribbean Currency. Information about the Caribbean Currencies and Caribbean Money Exchange. | Cuba Currency & Money Guide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After several requests from our visititors we will be expanding our site with currency related informacion from Caribbean countries. Following you will find a list of all Caribbean countries. You could click on any one to be directed to that country Carib

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the diverse and dynamic culture of the Caribbean with this informative guide into the heritage and people that populate this beautiful region

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wondering about historical sites, museums and other points of interest in Caribbean? Find answers in this guide to local landmarks.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Unique Facts About the Caribbean: Basic Geography

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Unique Facts About the Caribbean: Basic Geography

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Caribbean Island Fun Facts - AquaSafaris

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The underdeveloped Caribbean island of Anegada has the fourth largest barrier reef in the world. Legend has it that pirates once hid in Anegada's reef. It is reported that Anegada's reef has claimed the life of over 300 ships. Anegada means "drowned land." The highest point on Anegada is less than 28 feet above sea ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Caribbean Map / Map of the Caribbean - Maps and Information About the Caribbean - Worldatlas.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A guide to the Caribbean including maps (country map, outline map, political map, topographical map) and facts and information about the Caribbean.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Caribbean Sea, suboceanic basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, lying between latitudes 9° and 22° N and longitudes 89° and 60° W. It is approximately 1,063,000 square miles (2,753,000 square km) in extent. To the south it is bounded by the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama; to the west by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico; to the north by the Greater Antilles islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico; and to the east by the north-south chain of the Lesser Antilles, consisting of the island arc that extends from the Virgin Islands in the northeast to Trinidad, off the Venezuelan coast, in the southeast. Within the boundaries of the Caribbean itself, Jamaica, to the south of Cuba, is the largest of a number of islands.

Together with the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea has been erroneously termed the American Mediterranean, owing to the fact that, like the Mediterranean Sea, it is located between two continental landmasses. In neither hydrology nor climate, however, does the Caribbean resemble the Mediterranean. The preferred oceanographic term for the Caribbean is the Antillean-Caribbean Sea, which, together with the Gulf of Mexico, forms the Central American Sea. The Caribbean's greatest known depth is Cayman Trench (Bartlett Deep) between Cuba and Jamaica, approximately 25,216 feet (7,686 metres) below sea level.

J. Allen Cash Photolibrary/Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Physical features

Geology

The geologic age of the Caribbean is not known with certainty. As part of the Central American Sea, it is presumed to have been connected with the Mediterranean during Paleozoic times (i.e., about 541 to 252 million years ago) and then gradually to have separated from it as the Atlantic Ocean was formed. The ancient sediments overlying the seafloor of the Caribbean, as well as of the Gulf of Mexico, are about a half mile (about one kilometre) in thickness, with the upper strata representing sediments from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras (from about 252 million years ago to the present) and the lower strata presumably representing sediments of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras (from about 541 to 66 million years ago). Three phases of sedimentation have been identified. During the first and second phases the basin was free of deformation. The Central American Sea apparently became separated from the Atlantic before the end of the first phase. Near the end of the second phase, gentle warping and faulting occurred, forming the Aves and Beata ridges. Forces producing the Panamanian isthmus and the Antillean arc were vertical, resulting in no ultimate horizontal movement. The sediment beds tend to arch in the middle of the basins and to dip as landmasses are approached. The younger Cenozoic beds (formed during the last 65 million years) are generally horizontal, having been laid down after the deformations occurred. Connections were established with the Pacific Ocean during the Cretaceous Period (from about 145 to 66 million years ago) but were broken when the land bridges that permitted mammals to cross between North and South America were formed in the Miocene and Pliocene epochs (about 23 to 2.6 million years ago).

The existing sediment cover of the seabed consists of red clay in the deep basins and trenches, globigerina ooze (a calcareous marine deposit) on the rises, and pteropod ooze on the ridges and continental slopes. Clay minerals appear to have been washed down by the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, as well as by the Magdalena River in Colombia. Coral reefs fringe most of the islands.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

Physiography

The Caribbean Sea is divided into five submarine basins, each roughly elliptical in shape, which are separated from one another by submerged ridges and rises. These are the Yucatán, Cayman, Colombian, Venezuelan, and Grenada basins. The northernmost of these, the Yucatán Basin, is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by the Yucatán Channel, which runs between Cuba and the Yucatán Peninsula and has a sill depth (i.e., the depth of the submarine ridge between basins) of about 5,250 feet (1,600 metres). The Cayman Basin, to the south, is partially separated from the Yucatán Basin by Cayman Ridge, an incomplete fingerlike ridge that extends from the southern part of Cuba toward Guatemala, rising above the surface at one point to form the Cayman Islands. The Nicaraguan Rise, a wide triangular ridge with a sill depth of about 4,000 feet (1,200 metres), extends from Honduras and Nicaragua to Hispaniola, bearing the island of Jamaica and separating the Cayman Basin from the Colombian Basin. The Colombian Basin is partly separated from the Venezuelan Basin by the Beata Ridge. The basins are connected by the submerged Aruba Gap at depths greater than 13,000 feet (4,000 metres). The Aves Ridge, incomplete at its southern extremity, separates the Venezuelan Basin from the small Grenada Basin, which is bounded to the east by the Antillean arc of islands.

Subsurface water enters the Caribbean Sea across two sills. These sills are located below the Anegada Passage, which runs between the Virgin Islands and the Lesser Antilles, and the Windward Passage, which stretches between Cuba and Hispaniola. The sill depth of Anegada Passage is between 6,400 and 7,700 feet (1,950 and 2,350 metres), whereas that of the Windward Passage is between 5,250 and 5,350 feet (1,600 and 1,630 metres).

Hydrology

North Atlantic deep water enters the Caribbean beneath the Windward Passage and is characterized by its rich oxygen content and by a salinity of slightly less than 35 parts per thousand. From there it divides to fill the Yucatán, Cayman, and Colombian basins at depths near 6,500 feet (2,000 metres). This Caribbean bottom water also enters the Venezuelan Basin, thus introducing high-oxygen water at depths of 5,900 to 9,800 feet (1,800 to 3,000 metres). Subantarctic intermediate water (i.e., water differing in several characteristics from the surface and bottom layers of water that it separates) enters the Caribbean below the Anegada Passage at depths of 1,600 to 3,300 feet (500 to 1,000 metres). Above this water, the subtropical undercurrent and surface water enter. The shallow sill depths of the Antillean arc block the entry of Antarctic bottom water, so that the bottom temperature of the Caribbean Sea is close to 39 °F (4 °C), as compared with the Atlantic bottom temperature of less than 36 °F (2 °C).

Surface currents, bearing both high- and low-salinity water depending on the source, enter the Caribbean mainly through the channels and passages of the southern Antilles. These waters are then forced by the trade winds through the narrow Yucatán Channel into the Gulf of Mexico. The wind-driven surface water accumulates in the Yucatán Basin and the Gulf of Mexico, where it results in a higher average sea level than in the Atlantic, forming a hydrostatic head that is believed to constitute the main driving force of the Gulf Stream. Of the water passing through the Yucatán Channel each second, only about one-fourth represents the deeper Subantarctic intermediate water. The remainder is the surface water that passed over the Antillean arc at depths of less than 2,600 feet (800 metres).

Climate

The climate of the Caribbean generally is tropical, but there are great local variations, depending on mountain elevation, water currents, and the trade winds. Rainfall varies from about 10 inches (25 cm) per year on the island of Bonaire off the coast of Venezuela to some 350 inches (900 cm) annually in parts of Dominica. The northeast trade winds dominate the region with an average velocity of 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km) per hour. Tropical storms reaching a hurricane velocity of more than 75 miles (120 km) per hour are seasonally common in the northern Caribbean as well as in the Gulf of Mexico; they are almost nonexistent in the far south. The hurricane season is from June to November, but hurricanes occur most frequently in September. The yearly average is about eight such storms. The Caribbean has fewer hurricanes than either the western Pacific (where these storms are called typhoons) or the Gulf of Mexico. Most hurricanes form in the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands and follow the path of the trade winds into the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, although the exact path of any hurricane is unpredictable. In 1963 one of the deadliest hurricanes on record, Flora, caused the loss of more than 7,000 lives and extensive property damage in the Caribbean alone. Such storms also have been a major cause of crop failure in the region.

AP

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Caribbean Sea | Definition, Location, Map, Islands, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Caribbean Sea, suboceanic basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, lying between latitudes 9 and 22 degrees N and longitudes 89 and 60 degrees W. It is approximately 1,063,000 square miles (2,753,000 square km) in extent. Learn more about the Caribbean Sea in this article.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the geography of the countries of Central America and the Caribbean. Facts such as flags, maps, exports, natural resouces, and languages.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Caribbean islands are made up of island groups including Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, Leeward Antilles, and the Windward Islands.

Greater Antilles includes the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.

Lesser Antilles includes the U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Martin, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Guadeloupe.

The Windward Islands include Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos.

The Leeward Antilles include Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire.

There are countries that border the Caribbean, including Panama, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and several others.

Approximately 2% of the islands in the Caribbean are inhabited by people.

Many of those living on the Caribbean Islands are the descendants of slaves brought over from Africa when the Europeans began to colonize the area.

Some of the common languages spoken in the Caribbean include English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Creole, and Papiamento.

The islands in the Caribbean are also sometimes referred to as the West Indies. Christopher Columbus thought he had reached the Indies (Asia) on his voyage to find another route there. Instead he had reached the Caribbean. The Caribbean was named the West Indies to account for Columbus' mistake.

The Caribbean Islands may have evolved after volcanoes erupted under the sea several billions of years ago, according to geologists.

The most populated islands in the Caribbean are Haiti and Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

More than 4.3 million tourists visit the Dominican Republic each year, making it the most popular with tourists. Approximately 3.7 million visit Puerto Rico each year, and 2.7 million visit Cuba each year.

The shortest runway (for airplanes) in the world is located on Saba, an island in the Caribbean.

Famous eco-tourism destinations in the Caribbean include Bird of Paradise Island, Balenbouche Estate in St. Lucia, and Trinidad's Asa Wright Nature reserve.

Some people believe that the inhabitants of the Caribbean Islands - the Caribs - who lived there when the Europeans arrived, were cannibals.

The Caribbean Islands have a diverse topography including coral reefs, mountains, tropical forests, low-lying plantations, valleys, waterfalls, and volcanoes.

Jamaica has more churches per square mile than can be found in any other country. It has 1,600 churches in total.

In the famous movie series Pirates of the Caribbean, parts of all films were filmed in the Caribbean.

The very first James Bond film titled Dr. No was filmed in the Caribbean Island of Jamaica.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Caribbean, which is located southeast of North America's mainland, north of South America, and east of Central America, encompasses more than 700 islands, islets and cays, and the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean islands are made up of sovereign states, overseas dependencies, and overseas departments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Caribbean Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Caribbean or Caribbean Area ( Dutch: Cariben or Caraiben, French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Spanish: Caribe) is a region of the Americas. It includes the Caribbean Sea, its islands (more than 7,000 islands, small islands and cays, most of them surrounding the sea), and the coasts of north South America and east Central America.