Transcript Central America and the Caribbean

Central America
and the Caribbean
Geography
Geography
 Central
America is a narrow bridge of land
south of Mexico that includes 7 countries:
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__________
Costa Rica
El Salvador
__________
Honduras
Nicaragua
__________
Geography

The Caribbean consists of a chain, or ____________,
of many islands in the Caribbean Sea, an arm of the
Atlantic Ocean.

An archipelago is a _______ of many ____________.

Although Central America is made up of __ countries,
it is smaller in size than the state of __________.

The ________ _______ lies to the west, and the
_______________ Sea lies to the east.
The Ring of Fire

The chain of ____________ that runs through much of
Central America is part of a global geographic zone called
the _______ of ______.

The Ring of Fire is a circle of ____________ around the
_________ __________.

The movement of Earth’s tectonic plates in this zone
causes frequent ___________ ________, as well as
earthquakes.

As a result, eruptions & ___________ are a constant
danger in Central America.
The Ring of Fire

In ____________ alone there is a line of about ____ active
volcanoes along the western coast.

Volcanic eruptions in Central America often damage _____
and ____________.

The _____ from the eruptions help keep the soil fertile.
This is why most people live along the sides of the
___________. There they earn a living on tiny _______.

The mountain areas of Central America are also where
many ___________, or large farms, are located. Central
America’s highland plantations produce much of the
world’s __________ crop.
Panama
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At the southernmost end of Central America is the
_____________ of __________.

The isthmus at its narrowest point measures only
about ___ miles wide.

Near this point the Panama _______, a humanmade waterway, cuts through the isthmus and
links the __________ and __________ Oceans.

The Panama Canal is important because it enables
______to greatly shorten their ________ from one
ocean to the other.
The Panama Canal

Before the Panama Canal was completed in
_____, a ship going from New York City to San
Francisco had to travel around the _________ tip
of South America.
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The whole trip was more than ________ miles.
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By way of the Panama Canal, the trip is only
about ________ miles.
The Panama Canal
 The
_______ ________built the Panama
Canal at a cost of $380 million.
 It
took ___ years to complete.
 Today,
the country of _________ owns and
operates the canal as an important
____________ in world trade.
The Panama Canal
The Greater Antilles
3
groups of islands make up the ________.
 The
Bahamas
 The
_________ Antilles
 The
_________ Antilles
 Greater
and lesser in these names refer to the
sizes of the islands.
The Greater Antilles
 4 large
islands
______
Hispaniola
__________
Puerto
Rico
The Greater Antilles (cont)
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______ is the largest of the 4 islands
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About the size of ___________
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Only 90 miles south of _________
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Includes _____ other smaller islands

_________ landscape
 Mountains,
rain forests
hills, rolling plains, wide, fertile valleys,
The Greater Antilles (Cont)
 Hispaniola
is covered by _______ and the
____________ Republic.
 _______
_______is the smallest island in
the Greater Antilles and is about the size of
_________.
The Lesser Antilles
SE of Puerto Rico
 Divided into 2 groups
 Leeward Islands
 Windward Islands
 The NE ________ ______are the reason for
dividing them.
 The trade winds are winds that consistently blow
from the NE toward the equator. These winds give
the Lesser Antilles a ______ climate all year long,
but also put them in danger of _____________.
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The Bahamas
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The ____________ are the northernmost group of islands
in the Caribbean.
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They are only 50 miles off the eastern coast of _________.
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Made up of about 700 hundred islands and 2,400 _______.
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Cays are small low-lying islands made of sand, limestone,
or coral.
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________ is a hard, stony substance made up of
_________ of many tiny sea animals.
The Bahamas
Cay
Coral
The Bahamas
Of the 700 islands in the Bahamas, people live on only
about 20.
Grand Bahama
New Providence