Dominican Republic

Geography of Dominican Republic: Important Geographical Information about Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic shares the Hispaniola Island with Haiti in the Caribbean. The border was first established in 1929 through the Frontier Treaty or the Tratado Fronterizo in Spanish. It was again reestablished by the 1936 Protocol of Revision of the Frontier Treaty of 1929. The Dominican Republic occupies two-thirds of the island. Its western side shares a border with Haiti for 360 kilometers. The rest of the island is surrounded by water. On the eastern side is a 130-meter wide channel, the Mona Passage that separates Dominican Republic from Puerto Rico. Its southern portion is bordered by the Caribbean Sea while the Atlantic Ocean borders the island on its northern portion. The Dominican Republic is the second largest country in the Caribbean, following Cuba, which is the largest. In total landmass, the Dominican Republic, with 48,670 square kilometers, is equivalent to the size of the combined area of New Hampshire and Vermont. Its coastline is 1,288 kilometers long.

Regions

The valleys and mountain ranges in the Dominican Republic divide the country into three natural regions, central, southwest and northern regions. The Atlantic coastal plains, the Cibao Valley, the Samaná Peninsula and the Cordillera Septentrional comprise the northern region. The region is a combination of coastal plains, mountains and lowland swamps. The Cibao Valley is the most fertile valley in the Dominican Republic and has been labeled as the food basket of the country, an area where everything is grown. Another fertile valley is the Vega Real, located at the eastern point of Cibao Valley.

The Central Range or the Cordillera Central dominates the central region of the Dominican Republic. The region contains the higher peaks in the country. Near the border with Haiti the range is already 200 meters high. Its highest peak is the Pico Duarte, which rises to a height of 3,175 meters. Other peaks in the central region include La Pelona with 3,094 meters, La Rucilla with a height of 3,049 meters and the Pico Yaque that is 2,760 meters high. The Cordillera Central extends through the Sierra de Yamasá up to the Cordillera Oriental or the eastern range where the Caribbean coastal plain is located. A unique feature of the Caribbean coastal plain is the series of limestone terraces. The terraces make a gradual rise from 100 to 200 meters.

The southwestern region is also a combination of lowlands and mountains although the peaks are lower, with most of them about 1,000 to 1,500 meters, with the highest rising to about 2,000 meters.

The cul-de-sac depression or the Hoya de Enriquillo is located in this region. It is a lowland area that extends from the southeastern part of Haiti down to the southwestern part of the Dominican Republic. Parts of the Hoya de Enriquillo are below sea level, including the lowest point in the Dominican Republic, Lake Enriquillo which is 46 meters below sea level. Lake Enriquillo is the largest saltwater lake in the Caribbean and the lowest point in any of the islands in the Caribbean.

Lake Enriquillo measures 265 square meters and it contains three islands, Isla Cabritos, Islita and Isla Barbarita. Isla Cabritos is the largest of the three islands and includes a national park inhabited by crocodiles and flamingos. Interestingly, the three islands are actually connected by sandbars, which can be seen when the water level in the saltwater lake drops.

Lake Enriquillo is situated in the rift valley that was formed by the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault, which starts from Lake Enriquillo and runs across the southern part of the island of Hispaniola and through the Caribbean Sea toward Jamaica’s Plantain Garden River. This fault was responsible for the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010.

Rivers

The Dominican Republic has seven significant rivers, most of them originating from Cordillera Central, providing watershed and drainage basins. The Yaque del Norte is the most important and the longest river in the Dominican Republic, with a length of 296 kilometers. It rises from an area located near Pico Duarte and carries the excess water from the Cibao Valley to empty into the Atlantic Ocean. It has a watershed that covers 7,044 square kilometers. Other important rivers are the Yuna River, Yaque del Sur, Artibonite River, Ozama, Nizao, Mao and Camu. The largest lake (saltwater) is Lake Enriquillo. Other lakes Redonda, Limón, Rincón, a freshwater lake and Oviedo, with brackish water.

Climate

The Dominican Republic lies along the hurricane belt but is categorized to have a tropical climate. However, the temperature varies by day depending on the region due to the country’s terrain with its numerous mountains, steep valleys and coastal plains. The average temperature is about 77 °F, with about 64 °F in high altitudes and 82 °F in the lowlands. Extreme temperatures that can go as high as 104 °F can be experienced in the valleys while zero temperature can be felt in the highlands. Generally the coldest months are from January to February and the hottest month is August. Rainy season is also experienced differently in the Dominican Republic. The rainy season in the northern region starts from November and lasts until January while the rest of the country experience the rainy season from May to November, with the month of May usually experiencing the heaviest rainfall. The dry season for the rest of the country is from November up to April with March being the driest month. Some areas, like the Valle de Neiba receive only about 35 centimeters of rain annually due to the rain shadow given by the numerous mountain ranges while the region in the Cordillera Oriental can have 274 centimeters of rain.

Hurricanes, tropical storms, tropical depressions regularly occur in the Dominican Republic about once every two years, hitting the southern parts of the country. The cyclone season starts in June and lasts up to the end of November. It is possible for the cyclones to occur between May and December. Generally, the cyclones come in the months of September and October. August up to October is the season for hurricanes. Hurricane David, a category 5 hurricane the occurred in 1979 was the last hurricane that struck the Dominican Republic.

:: References ::
http://www.hispaniola.com/dominican_republic/info/nature_georaphy.php
http://www.thedominicanrepublic.net/geography_location.htm
http://www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/dominican-republic/GEOGRAPHY.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Dominican_Republic