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Dominican Republic Natural Regions
The mountains and valleys of the Dominican Republic
divide
the country into the northern, the central, and the
southwestern
regions. The northern region, bordering the Atlantic
Ocean,
consists of the Atlantic coastal plain, the Cordillera
Septentrional (or Northern Mountain Range), the Valle del
Cibao
(Cibao Valley), and the Samaná Peninsula. The Atlantic
coastal
plain is a narrow strip that extends from the northwestern
coast
at Monte Cristi to Nagua, northwest of the Samaná
Peninsula. The
Cordillera Septentrional is south of, and runs parallel
to, the
coastal plain. Its highest peaks rise to an elevation of
over
1,000 meters. The Valle del Cibao lies south of the
Cordillera
Septentrional. It extends 240 kilometers from the
northwest coast
to the Bahía de Samaná in the east and ranges in width
from 15 to
45 kilometers. To the west of the ridge lies the Valle de
Santiago and to the east is the Valle de la Vega Real. The
Samaná
Peninsula is an eastward extension of the northern region,
separated from the Cordillera Septentrional by an area of
swampy
lowlands. The peninsula is mountainous; its highest
elevations
reach 600 meters.
The central region is dominated by the Cordillera
Central
(Central Range); it runs eastward from the Haitian border
and
turns southward at the Valle de Constanza (or Constanza
Valley)
to end in the Caribbean Sea. This southward branch is
known as
the Sierra de Ocoa. The Cordillera Central is 2,000 meters
high
near the Haitian border and reaches a height of 3,087
meters at
Pico Duarte, the highest point in the country. An eastern
branch
of the Cordillera Central extends through the Sierra de
Yamasá to
the Cordillera Oriental (Eastern Range). The main peaks of
these
two mountain groups are not higher than 880 meters. The
Cordillera Oriental is also known as the Sierra de Seibo.
Another significant feature of the central region is
the
Caribbean coastal plain, which lies south of the foothills
of the
Sierra de Yamasá and the Cordillera Oriental. It extends
240
kilometers from the mouth of the Ocoa River to the extreme
eastern end of the island. The Caribbean coastal plain is
10 to
40 kilometers wide and consists of a series of limestone
terraces
that gradually rise to a height of 100 to 120 meters at
the
northern edge of the coastal plains at the foothills of
the
Cordillera Oriental. Finally, the central region includes
the
Valle de San Juan in the western part of the country; the
valley
extends 100 kilometers from the Haitian border to the
Bahía de
Ocoa.
The southwestern region lies south of the Valle de San
Juan.
It encompasses the Sierra de Neiba, which extends 100
kilometers
from the Haitian border to the Yaque del Sur River. The
main
peaks are roughly 2,000 meters high, while other peaks
range from
1,000 to 1,500 meters. On the eastern side of the Yaque
del Sur
lies the Sierra de Martín García, which extends
twenty-five
kilometers from the river to the Llanura de Azua (Plain of
Azua).
The Hoya de Enriquillo, a structural basin that lies
south of
the Sierra de Neiba, is also within the southwestern
region. The
basin extends ninety-five kilometers from the Haitian
border to
the Bahía de Neiba and twenty kilometers from the Sierra
de Neiba
to the Sierra de Baoruco. The Sierra de Baoruco extends
seventy
kilometers from the Haitian border to the Caribbean Sea.
Its
three major peaks surpass 2,000 meters in height.
TheProcurrente
de Barahona (Cape of Barahona) extends southward from the
Sierra
de Baoruco and consists of a series of terraces.
Data as of December 1989
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