lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
on the northwest coast of
Panama
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
covering an area of about . It is separated from the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...
by the Valiente Peninsula to the east and from Almirante Bay by islands in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago to the northwest, including Cayo Agua and Isla Popa. The widest and deepest entrance into the bay is the Canal del Tigre in the northeast, which is the main access channel for ships entering the lagoon.
The temperature of the water in the lagoon ranges from 26 to 28 °C. Salinity can be as low as 1.015 ( SG) due to runoff from rivers, especially during the rainy season. The mean
tidal range
Tidal range is the difference in height between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun, by Earth's rotation and by centrifugal force caused by Earth's prog ...
is with a maximum range of ; tidal flow in the lagoon is weak.
Rivers that drain into Chiriquí Lagoon include the Guariviara River and Cricamola River, both of which flow through the wetlands on the southeast shore of the lagoon. These are protected as part of the
Ramsar site
A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O)
*** Permanent 8 ha (P)
*** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts)
**
Damani-Guariviara, which covers of land between the lagoon and the Caribbean coast.
There are periods of low rainfall in March and September–October, and periods of high rainfall in July and December. The annual rainfall in the region is about , being higher in the southeast part of the lagoon. February is the windiest month in the lagoon.
Native Americans guided
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...
into the lagoon in 1502 during his search for a connection to the Pacific Ocean. The Ngäbe continue to inhabit the southern and eastern coasts of the lagoon. The lagoon is administratively divided between
Bocas del Toro Province
Bocas del Toro (; meaning "Mouths of the Bull") is a Provinces of Panama, province of Panama. Its area is 4,643.9 square kilometers, comprising the mainland and nine main islands. The province consists of the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Bahía Al ...
in the west and
Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca
Ngäbe-Buglé () is the largest and most populous of Panama's five ''Comarca#Panama, comarcas indígenas''. It was created in 1997 from lands formerly belonging to the provinces of Bocas del Toro Province, Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí Province, Chi ...
in the east.
Coal deposits were discovered in the area in the mid-19th century. The port of Chiriquí Grande is the northern terminus of the
Trans-Panama pipeline
The Trans-Panama Pipeline () is an oil pipeline across Panama near the Costa Rican border from the port of Chiriqui Grande, Bocas del Toro Province, Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean coast to the port of Charco Azul on the Pacific coa ...
. The terminal was the site of an
oil spill
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into th ...
on 4 February 2007 that leaked 5030
barrels
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids ...