Mona Passage
Strait connecting the Atlantic and Caribbean
title: "Mona Passage" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["bodies-of-water-of-the-dominican-republic", "bodies-of-water-of-puerto-rico", "dominican-republic–puerto-rico-border", "geography-of-hispaniola", "geography-of-puerto-rico", "geography-of-the-dominican-republic", "international-straits", "straits-of-the-caribbean"] description: "Strait connecting the Atlantic and Caribbean" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Passage" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Strait connecting the Atlantic and Caribbean ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox body of water"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Mona Passage |
| other_name | Canal de la Mona |
| image | |
| alt | A map of the Caribbean, with the southern United State above, and Mexico and Central America to the left. The Mona Passage is labeled between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, near Mona Island. |
| caption | Location of the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico (east) and the Dominican Republic in Hispaniola (west) within the Caribbean |
| caption_bathymetry | |
| coordinates | |
| catchment | |
| basin_countries | Puerto Rico (U.S.) |
| Dominican Republic | |
| date-built | |
| date-flooded | |
| area | |
| max-depth | |
| volume | |
| shore | |
| elevation | |
| temperature_high | |
| temperature_low | |
| cities | |
| pushpin_map | Caribbean#Puerto Rico#Dominican Republic |
| pushpin_label_position | Bottom |
| pushpin_relief | 1 |
| pushpin_map_caption | |
| :: |
| name = Mona Passage | native_name = | native_name_lang = | other_name = Canal de la Mona | image = Mona passage.jpg | alt = A map of the Caribbean, with the southern United State above, and Mexico and Central America to the left. The Mona Passage is labeled between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, near Mona Island. | caption = Location of the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico (east) and the Dominican Republic in Hispaniola (west) within the Caribbean | image_bathymetry = | alt_bathymetry = | caption_bathymetry = | location = | group = | coordinates = | type = | etymology = | part_of = | inflow = | rivers = | outflow = | oceans = | catchment = | basin_countries = Puerto Rico (U.S.) Dominican Republic | agency = | designation = | date-built = | engineer = | date-flooded = | length = | width = | area = | depth = | max-depth = | volume = | residence_time = | salinity = | shore = | elevation = | temperature_high = | temperature_low = | frozen = | islands = | islands_category = | sections = | trenches = | benches = | cities = | pushpin_map = Caribbean#Puerto Rico#Dominican Republic | pushpin_label = | pushpin_label_position = Bottom | pushpin_map_alt = | pushpin_relief = 1 | pushpin_map_caption = | website = | reference =
The Mona Passage () is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean region. Along with the Windward Passage between Hispaniola and Cuba, the approximately 80 mi wide Mona Passage connects the North Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, operating as an important shipping route between the North Atlantic and the Panama Canal. The passage is fraught with variable tidal currents created by the islands on either side of it, and by sand banks that extend out from both coasts. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Admiralty_Chart_No_472_Mona_Passage,_Published_1955.jpg" caption="Nautical chart of Mona Passage between Hispaniola (west) and Puerto Rico (east), 1955"] ::
Islands
There are three small islands in the Mona Passage:
- Mona Island lies close to the middle of the Mona Passage.
- 3 mi northwest of Mona Island is the much smaller Monito Island.
- 30 mi northeast of Mona Island and much closer (13 mi) to the Puerto Rican mainland is Desecheo Island.
Structure and seismicity
The Passage was the site of a devastating earthquake and 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.
Physical oceanography
The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean waters and Caribbean Sea waters, above a sill depth of 400 to. The sill runs along a northwest to the southeast direction between Cabo Engaño in Hispaniola in the west and the Cabo Rojo Shelf in Puerto Rico to 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 300 m, 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.{{Cite book | author = Segura-Torres, W. | year = 2000 | title = Low frequency transport components in Mona Passage | publisher = Ph. D. Dissertation. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. | pages = 317}}
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.{{Cite book | author = Rosario-Llantín, J. | year = 2000 | title = Tidal Currents in Mona Passage | publisher = M.S. Thesis. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. | pages = 82}}
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 40 m.{{Cite book | author = Bejarano, L. F. | year = 1997 | title = Characterization of the internal tide north of Mona Passage | publisher = M.S. Thesis. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. | pages = 112}} Underwater glider observations reveal wave damping as the internal tide propagates south along the Mona Passage towards the open Caribbean Sea.{{Cite journal | author = Corredor, J. E. | year = 2008 | title = Development and Propagation of Internal Tides in the Mona Passage | journal = Sea Technology | volume = October | pages = 48–50 | url = http://cara.uprm.edu/o/public/media/Development%20and%20Propagation%20Of%20Internal%20Waves%20in%20the%20Mona%20Passage_Sea%20Technology.pdf | accessdate = 2014-08-30}}{{Cite journal | author = Corredor, J. E., Morell J. M., Capella J. E., Glen S. and D. Pabst | journal = AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts | volume = 2008 | pages = OS33B–01 |date=May 2008 | title = Internal Tides in the Mona Passage | bibcode = 2008AGUSMOS33B..01C | author = Schofield O., Kohut J., Glenn S., Morell J., Capella J., Corredor J., Orcutt J., Arrott M., Krueger I., Meisinger M., Peach C., Vernon F., Chave A., Chao Y., Chien S., Thompson D., Brown W., Oliver M. and W. Boicourt | date = November–December 2008 | title = A Regional Slocum Glider Network in the Mid-Atlantic Bight Leverages Broad Community Engagement | journal = Marine Technology Society Journal | volume = 44 | number = 6 | pages = 185–195 | url = http://www.whoi.edu/cms/files/108_121564.pdf | accessdate = 2014-09-06| doi = 10.4031/MTSJ.44.6.20
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.{{Cite book | author = Alfonso-Sosa, E. | year = 2002 | title = Variabilidad temporal de la producción primaria fitoplanctonica en la estación CaTS (Caribbean Time-Series Station): Con énfasis en el impacto de la marea interna semidiurna sobre la producción. | publisher = Ph. D. Dissertation. Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. UMI publication AAT 3042382 | pages = 407 | url = https://www.academia.edu/4959523 | format = PDF | accessdate = 2014-08-25}}
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. | last = Alfonso-Sosa | first = Edwin | title = Internal Solitary Waves Generated at Banco Engaño, Mona Passage | pages = 1–12 | date = 2015-03-10 | url = https://www.academia.edu/11398804 | format = PDF | accessdate = 2015-03-19}}{{Cite journal | author = Alfonso-Sosa, E. | year = 2013 | title = Misterioso Fenómeno en el Pasaje de la Mona | journal = La Regata | volume = 7 | pages = 10 | url = http://www.laregatapr.com/links/arch.pdf/1307.pdf | accessdate = 2014-08-31}} The packets propagate either into the Caribbean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean depending on the direction of the currents that forced their generation.{{cite journal | last = Alfonso-Sosa | first = Edwin | title = Internal Solitons Generated at Banco Engaño, Mona Passage* | pages = 1–6 | date = 2013-07-07 | url = https://www.academia.edu/8209502 | format = PDF | accessdate = 2014-09-05}}
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.
References
References
- https://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2007/05/ {{Webarchive. link. (2017-04-05 Uri ten Brink, ''New Bathymetric Map of Mona Passage, Northeastern Caribbean, Aids in Earthquake- and Tsunami-Hazard Mitigation,'' USGS Sound Waves Newsletter, May 2007)
- [[Desecheo Island]] sits on the Desecheo ridge, a narrow east-west ridge that extends west from the northwest corner of Puerto Rico. The ridge forms the southern boundary of the {{Convert. 4. km. 3. km. 978-0-8137-2385-3
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