Talk:American Mediterranean Sea

Huh?

There's only one traceable source here and it's from a book published in 1942. I'm no oceanographer but I've never, ever heard this name for a sea used. Who the hell is talking about the "American Mediterranean Sea" and using it to mean this body of water?

I've added another source, and tried to clarify that this is more of a technical term. It is more commonly used by oceanographers who study generic mediterranean seas [1], and e.g. distinguish dilution basins like the American Mediterranean Sea from concentration basins like the European Mediterranean.. See scientific use at this google books search: https://www.google.com/search?tbs=bks:1&q=%22American+Mediterranean+Sea%22+-wikipedia and at this Google Scholar search: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22American+Mediterranean+Sea%22

The book "The Oceans Their Physics, Chemistry, and General Biology" says the name "has been employed particularly by German oceanographers". ★NealMcB★ (talk) 19:03, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

Section

Why is the Cayman Trough not mentioned in this article? It's the most visible and striking oceanic feature in the main image. It contains the deepest point in the Caribbean Sea. It is the boundary between the North American and the Caribbean Plate. Without mention of it in my view this article fails to fully describe its subject. I am a former editor who no longer uses a username but one only has to look at the topographical image to know that this article is deficient in this respect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.168.245.192 (talk) 04:59, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Thank you - I've added that and distinguished drainage basins from the deep sea basins. ★NealMcB★ (talk) 19:31, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

Erroneous name

One source cited here says the Caribbean Sea + Gulf of Mexico has been erroneously called the American Mediterranean Sea. And with good reason - the Mediterranean Sea is in southern Europe. Mediterranean is from medi, middle plus terra, earth, the sea in the middle of earth, or an inland sea. At best, it's a colloquial and uninformed name. The article needs to be merged somewhere else; I don't see how we can let is exist named this, and there's no conjunctive name for Gulf of Mexico+Caribbean Sea. Sbalfour (talk) 22:13, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

That's one source's opinion, but see mediterranean sea (oceanography) for a more comprehensive treatment on the subject of "mediterranean seas" as a type, which does not appear to be "colloquial and uninformed". If this is a legitimate dispute among oceanographers, then that needs to be covered in the "Mediterranean sea (oceanography)", with a sourced mention of the dispute here as relates to this article. - BilCat (talk) 22:33, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

I note that in the main source on the name, it says this is "a name which has been employed particularly by German oceanographers". Page 637, https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=kt167nb66r&chunk.id=d3_4_ch15 ★NealMcB★ (talk) 17:24, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

Mississippi watershed removal...

The article had read: "The American Mediterranean Sea is a name for the combined watershed of the Mississippi River Basin and the waterbody of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico."

I've removed the part about "watershed of the Mississippi River Basin" because: 1) This is land area, and thus not a part of any sea. 2) If the watershed of the Mississippi is included then one would also have to include the watershed areas of all of the other rivers in the US, Mexico, and Central and South America which flow into the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico.

Frankly, I find this entire notion of an "American Mediterranean Sea" a bit dubious, as I'm not convinced this name for the combined bodies is at all well established. But let's at least present the concept in a reasonable and plausible form, and not make it completely absurd by labeling the vast areas of the North American interior drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries as part of a sea! -2003:CA:8722:333B:51C2:9F80:7C38:D3BF (talk) 00:38, 25 September 2021 (UTC)