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Panama GEOGRAPHY
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Figure 4. Topography and Drainage
Panama is located on the narrowest and lowest part of the
Isthmus of Panama that links North America and South America. This
S-shaped part of the isthmus is situated between 7° and 10°
north
latitude and 77° and 83° west longitude. Slightly smaller
than
South Carolina, Panama encompasses approximately 77,082 square
kilometers, is 772 kilometers in length, and is between 60 and 177
kilometers in width
(see
fig. 1).
Panama's two coastlines are referred to as the Caribbean (or
Atlantic) and Pacific, rather than the north and south coasts. To
the east is Colombia and to the west Costa Rica. Because of the
location and contour of the country, directions expressed in terms
of the compass are often surprising. For example, a transit of the
Panama Canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean involves travel not
to the east but to the northwest, and in Panama City the sunrise is
to the east over the Pacific.
The country is divided into nine provinces, plus the Comarca de
San Blas, which for statistical purposes is treated as part of
Colón Province in most official documents. The provincial borders
have not changed since they were determined at independence in
1903. The provinces are divided into districts, which in turn are
subdivided into sections called corregimientos.
Configurations of the corregimientos are changed
periodically to accommodate population changes as revealed in the
census reports.
The country's two international boundaries, with Colombia and
Costa Rica, have been clearly demarcated, and in the late 1980s
there were no outstanding disputes. The country claims the seabed
of the continental shelf, which has been defined by Panama to
extend to the 500-meter submarine contour. In addition, a 1958 law
asserts jurisdiction over 12 nautical miles from the coastlines,
and in 1968 the government announced a claim to a 200-nautical-mile
Exclusive Economic Zone.
The Caribbean coastline is marked by several good natural
harbors. However, Cristóbal, at the Caribbean terminus of the
canal, had the only important port facilities in the late 1980s.
The numerous islands of the Archipiélago de Bocas del Toro, near
the Costa Rican border, provide an extensive natural roadstead and
shield the banana port of Almirante. The over 350 San Blas Islands,
near Colombia, are strung out for more than 160 kilometers along
the sheltered Caribbean coastline.
The major port on the Pacific coastline is Balboa. The
principal islands are those of the Archipiélago de las Perlas in
the middle of the Gulf of Panama, the penal colony on the Isla de
Coiba in the Golfo de Chiriquí, and the decorative island of
Taboga, a tourist attraction that can be seen from Panama City. In
all, there are some 1,000 islands off the Pacific coast.
The Pacific coastal waters are extraordinarily shallow. Depths
of 180 meters are reached only outside the perimeters of both the
Gulf of Panama and the Golfo de Chiriquí, and wide mud flats extend
up to 70 kilometers seaward from the coastlines. As a consequence,
the tidal range is extreme. A variation of about 70 centimeters
between high and low water on the Caribbean coast contrasts sharply
with over 700 centimeters on the Pacific coast, and some 130
kilometers up the Río Tuira the range is still over 500
centimeters.
The dominant feature of the country's landform is the central
spine of mountains and hills that forms the continental divide
(see
fig. 4). The divide does not form part of the great mountain chains
of North America, and only near the Colombian border are there
highlands related to the Andean system of South America. The spine
that forms the divide is the highly eroded arch of an uplift from
the sea bottom, in which peaks were formed by volcanic intrusions.
The mountain range of the divide is called the Cordillera de
Talamanca near the Costa Rican border. Farther east it becomes the
Serranía de Tabasará, and the portion of it closer to the lower
saddle of the isthmus, where the canal is located, is often called
the Sierra de Veraguas. As a whole, the range between Costa Rica
and the canal is generally referred to by Panamanian geographers as
the Cordillera Central.
The highest point in the country is the Volcán Barú (formerly
known as the Volcán de Chiriquí), which rises to almost 3,500
meters. The apex of a highland that includes the nation's richest
soil, the Volcán Barú is still referred to as a volcano, although
it has been inactive for millennia.
Nearly 500 rivers lace Panama's rugged landscape. Mostly
unnavigable, many originate as swift highland streams, meander in
valleys, and form coastal deltas. However, the Río Chepo and the
Río Chagres are sources of hydroelectric power.
The Río Chagres is one of the longest and most vital of the
approximately 150 rivers that flow into the Caribbean. Part of this
river was dammed to create Gatun Lake, which forms a major part of
the transit route between the locks near each end of the canal.
Both Gatun Lake and Madden Lake (also filled with water from the
Río Chagres) provide hydroelectricity for the area of the former
Canal Zone.
The Río Chepo, another major source of hydroelectric power, is
one of the more than 300 rivers emptying into the Pacific. These
Pacific-oriented rivers are longer and slower running than those of
the Caribbean side. Their basins are also more extensive. One of
the longest is the Río Tuira, which flows into the Golfo de San
Miguel and is the nation's only river navigable by larger vessels.
Panama has a tropical climate. Temperatures are uniformly high-
-as is the relative humidity--and there is little seasonal
variation. Diurnal ranges are low; on a typical dry-season day in
the capital city, the early morning minimum may be 24°C and the
afternoon maximum 29°C. The temperature seldom exceeds 32°C
for
more than a short time.
Temperatures on the Pacific side of the isthmus are somewhat
lower than on the Caribbean, and breezes tend to rise after dusk in
most parts of the country. Temperatures are markedly cooler in the
higher parts of the mountain ranges, and frosts occur in the
Cordillera de Talamanca in western Panama.
Climatic regions are determined less on the basis of
temperature than on rainfall, which varies regionally from less
than 1.3 to more than 3 meters per year. Almost all of the rain
falls during the rainy season, which is usually from April to
December, but varies in length from seven to nine months. The cycle
of rainfall is determined primarily by two factors: moisture from
the Caribbean, which is transported by north and northeast winds
prevailing during most of the year, and the continental divide,
which acts as a rainshield for the Pacific lowlands. A third
influence that is present during the late autumn is the southwest
wind off the Pacific. This wind brings some precipitation to the
Pacific lowlands, modified by the highlands of the Península de
Azuero, which form a partial rainshield for much of central Panama.
In general, rainfall is much heavier on the Caribbean than on the
Pacific side of the continental divide. The annual average in
Panama City is little more than half of that in Colón. Although
rainy-season thunderstorms are common, the country is outside the
hurricane track.
Panama's tropical environment supports an abundance of plants.
Forests dominate, interrupted in places by grasslands, scrub, and
crops. Although nearly 40 percent of Panama is still wooded,
deforestation is a continuing threat to the rain-drenched
woodlands. Tree cover has been reduced by more than 50 percent
since the 1940s. Subsistence farming, widely practiced from the
northeastern jungles to the southwestern grasslands, consists
largely of corn, bean, and tuber plots. Mangrove swamps occur along
parts of both coasts, with banana plantations occupying deltas near
Costa Rica. In many places, a multi-canopied rain forest abuts the
swamp on one side of the country and extends to the lower reaches
of slopes in the other.
Data as of December 1987
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