1. Central America and the Caribbean

2. Geography

3.  Central America is a narrow bridge of land south of Mexico that includes 7 countries:  __________  Costa Rica  El Salvador  __________  Honduras  Nicaragua  __________

4. 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.

5. The Ring of Fire  The chain of ____________ that runs through much of Central America is part of a global geographic zone called the _______ of ______. Ring of Fire  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.

6. 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.

7. Panama  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 human- made 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.

8. 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.  The whole trip was more than ________ miles.  By way of the Panama Canal, the trip is only about ________ miles.

9. 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.

10. The Panama Canal

11. The Greater Antilles  3 groups of islands make up the ________.  The Bahamas  The _________ Antilles  Greater and lesser in these names refer to the sizes of the islands.

12. The Greater Antilles  4 large islands  ______  Hispaniola  __________  Puerto Rico

13. The Greater Antilles (cont)  ______ is the largest of the 4 islands  About the size of ___________  Only 90 miles south of _________  Includes _____ other smaller islands  _________ landscape  Mountains, hills, rolling plains, wide, fertile valleys, rain forests

14. 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 _________.

15. 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 _____________.

16. The Bahamas  The ____________ are the northernmost group of islands in the Caribbean.  They are only 50 miles off the eastern coast of _________.  Made up of about 700 hundred islands and 2,400 _______.  Cays are small low-lying islands made of sand, limestone, or coral.  ________ is a hard, stony substance made up of _________ of many tiny sea animals.

17. The Bahamas Cay Coral

18. The Bahamas Of the 700 islands in the Bahamas, people live on only about 20. Grand BahamaNew Providence