Мона бұғазы: Атлант мұхиты мен Кариб теңізін байланыстыратын жол

Strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea

The Mona Passage (lang es) is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic and the Panama Canal. The Mona Passage is 80 miles (130 kilometers) long. It is fraught with variable tidal currents created by large islands on either side of it, and by sand banks that extend out from both coasts.

The Passage was the site of a devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami that hit western Puerto Rico in 1918. It is the site of frequent small earthquakes. The passage is underlain by a seismically active rift zone that overprints an older partly eroded tilted block structure.

The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean waters and Caribbean Sea waters, above a sill depth of 1,312 to 1,640 feet (400 to 500 meters). The sill runs along a northwest to the southeast direction between Cabo Engaño (DR) in the west and the Cabo Rojo Shelf (PR) in the east margin of the Mona Passage. The vertical profile of the low frequency (periods longer than 2 days) mean meridional water transport is characterized by a two layer structure. The upper layer lies above a depth of 984 feet (300 meters), with the upper water masses, the Caribbean Surface Water, Subtropical Underwater and Sargasso Sea Water entering the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Below this layer, the Tropical Central Water exits toward the Atlantic Ocean. The mean value for the meridional (North South) transport for a sampled year was 1.85 ± 0.25 sverdrup (Sv) into the Caribbean Sea. The barotropic tide (surface tide) propagates from northeast to southwest along Mona Passage. The "principal lunar semi diurnal" constituent, also known as the M2 (or M2) accounts for 52.35% of the total variance observed in the ocean currents and the semidiurnal current ellipses, with a clockwise rotation, are roughly aligned in a north–south direction. Semidiurnal tidal currents impinging on a submarine ridge known as El Pichincho can force the generation of an internal tide with a wave height of 131 feet (40 meters). Underwater glider observations reveal wave damping as the internal tide propagates south along the Mona Passage towards the open Caribbean Sea. Internal tides at El Pichincho can elevate the turbulent vertical diffusivity values (or Eddy diffusion), and with a reduction of the Richardson number at the base of the pycnocline. The development of Kelvin Helmholtz instability during the breaking of the internal tide can explain the formation of high diffusivity patches that generate a vertical flux of nitrate (NO3−) into the photic zone and can sustain new production locally. Higher values of primary productivity were observed near the wave trough, than those observed during periods of maximum solar irradiance at noon. Images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and International Space Station (ISS) photography show the sea surface manifestation of packets of internal solitons (or nonlinear internal waves) generated at Banco Engaño, located at the northwest margin of the Mona Passage. The packets propagate either into the Caribbean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean depending on the direction of the currents that forced their generation. Surface tides, internal tides, internal solitons, inertial currents and the low frequency water mass transport between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea make the Mona Passage a very dynamic environment.