Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin or bay of the Atlantic Ocean. It is a marginal sea of North America. The United States of America, Mexico, and Cuba are the countries around it.

The Straits of Florida connect to the rest of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Yucatán Channel connects to the Caribbean Sea. Because of its narrow connection to the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf has very small tides.

The size of the Gulf basin is about 1.6 million km2 (615,000 sq mi). Almost half of the basin is shallow continental-shelf waters. The climate is tropical, with heavy growth of plankton and sea grass.

Petroleum is found near the north and west coast of this gulf. Many hurricanes hit this area, for example, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita hurt many of the oil wells in 2005 in the United States. There is also a big fishing industry in the gulf. The Gulf of Mexico is one of the most important offshore petroleum-production regions in the world, making one-sixth of the United States' total production.

The Gulf was formed by plate tectonics about 300 million years ago.

Gulf Of Mexico Media

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  Galveston harbor by Verner Moore White

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  Ship and oil rigs in the Gulf

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  Cantarell Field, supergiant oil field in Yucatan, Mexico. Photo in 11 km height and 40 km distance; at the horizon Laguna de Terminos (distance 150 km)

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  Sediment in the Gulf of Mexico

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  Richard Mount and Thomas Page's 1700 map of the Gulf of Mexico, A Chart of the Bay of Mexico

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  Graph showing the overall water temperature of the Gulf between Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Although Katrina cooled waters in its path by up to 4 °C, they had rebounded by the time of Rita's appearance.

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  Gulf beach near Sabine Pass

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  The Mississippi River watershed is the largest drainage basin of the Gulf of Mexico Watershed.

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  Map of northern part of Gulf of Mexico

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  The shaded relief map of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean area.