The Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de Mxico) is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North
American continent and the island of Cuba.
[1]
It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by
the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by
Cuba. The US states ofTexas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida border the Gulf on the
north. In Texas and Louisiana it is often referred to as the "Third Coast" in the United States, in
comparison with the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The shape of its basin is roughly oval and is
approximately 810 nautical miles (1,500 km) wide and filled with sedimentary rocks and debris. It is
connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U.S. and Cuba, and with
the Caribbean Sea (with which it forms theAmerican Mediterranean Sea) via the Yucatan
Channel between Mexico and Cuba. With this narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences
very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 615,000 mi (1.6 million km).
Almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. At its deepest it is 14,383 ft (4,384 m) at
the Sigsbee Deep, an irregular trough more than 300 nautical miles (560 km) long. The basin
contains a volume of roughly 660 quadrillion gallons (2.5 10
6
km
3
).
[2]
It was formed approximately
300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics.
[3]
Geography
The Gulf of Mexico's eastern, northern, and northwestern shores lie along the US states
of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The US portion of the Gulf
coastline spans 1,680 miles (2,700 km), receiving water from 33 major rivers that drain
31 states.
[17]
The Gulf's southwestern and southern shores lie along the Mexican
states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatn, and the northernmost
tip of Quintana Roo. The Mexican portion of the Gulf coastline spans 1,743 miles
(2,805 km). On its southeast quadrant the Gulf is bordered by Cuba. It supports major
American, Mexican and Cuban fishing industries. The outer margins of the wide
continental shelves of Yucatn and Florida receive cooler, nutrient-enriched waters from
the deep by a process known as upwelling, which stimulates plankton growth in
the euphotic zone. This attracts fish, shrimp, and squid.
[18]
Riverdrainage and
atmospheric fallout from industrial coastal cities also provide nutrients to the coastal
zone.
The Gulf Stream, a warm Atlantic Ocean current and one of the strongest ocean
currents known, originates in the gulf, as a continuation of the Caribbean Current-Yucatn
Current-Loop Currentsystem. Other circulation features include the anticyclonic gyres which
are shed by the Loop Current and travel westward where they eventually dissipate, and a
permanent cyclonic gyre in the Bay of Campeche. The Bay of Campeche in Mexico constitutes
a major arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, the gulf's shoreline is fringed by numerous
bays and smaller inlets. A number of rivers empty into the gulf, most notably the Mississippi
River and Rio Grande in the northern gulf, and the Grijalva andUsumacinta rivers in the
southern gulf. The land that forms the gulf's coast, including many long, narrow barrier islands,
is almost uniformly low-lying and is characterized by marshes and swamps as well as
stretches of sandy beach.
The Gulf of Mexico is an excellent example of a passive margin. The continental shelf is quite
wide at most points along the coast, most notably at the Florida and Yucatn Peninsulas. The
shelf is exploited for its oil by means of offshore drilling rigs, most of which are situated in the
western gulf and in the Bay of Campeche. Another important commercial activity is fishing;
major catches include red snapper,amberjack, tilefish, swordfish, and various grouper, as well
as shrimp and crabs. Oysters are also harvested on a large scale from many of the bays and
sounds. Other important industries along the coast include shipping, petrochemical processing
and storage, military use, paper manufacture, and tourism.
The gulf's warm water temperature can feed powerful Atlantic hurricanes causing extensive
human death and other destruction as happened with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the
Atlantic, a hurricane will draw up cool water from the depths and making it less likely that
further hurricanes will follow in its wake (warm water being one of the preconditions necessary
for their formation). However, the Gulf is shallower; when a hurricane passes over the water
temperature may drop but it soon rebounds and becomes capable of supporting another
tropical storm.
[19]

The Gulf is considered aseismic; however, mild tremors have been recorded throughout
history (usually 5.0 or less on the Richter scale). Earthquakes may be caused by interactions
between sediment loading on the sea floor and adjustment by the crust.
[20]

History[
Although Christopher Columbus was credited with the discovery of the Americas by Europeans, the
ships in his four voyages never reached the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, Columbus sailed into
the Caribbean around Cuba andHispaniola. The first European exploration of the Gulf of Mexico was
by Amerigo Vespucci in 1497. He followed the coastal land mass of Central America before returning
to the Atlantic Ocean via the Straits of Florida between Florida and Cuba. In his letters, Vespucci
described this trip, and once Juan de la Cosa returned toSpain, a famous world map, depicting Cuba
as an island, was produced.
In 1506, Hernn Corts took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, receiving a large estate of
land andIndian slaves for his effort. In 1510, he accompanied Diego Velzquez de Cullar, an aide of
the governor of Hispaniola, in his expedition to conquer Cuba. In 1518 Velzquez put him in
command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization.
In 1517, Francisco Hernndez de Crdoba discovered the Yucatn Peninsula. This was the
first Europeanencounter with an advanced civilization in the Americas, with solidly built buildings and
a complex social organization which they recognized as being comparable to those of the Old World;
they also had reason to expect that this new land would have gold. All of this encouraged two further
expeditions, the first in 1518 under the command of Juan de Grijalva, and the second in 1519 under
the command of Hernn Corts, which led to the Spanish exploration, military invasion, and ultimately
settlement and colonization known as the Conquest of Mexico. Hernndez did not live to see the
continuation of his work: he died in 1517, the year of his expedition, as the result of the injuries and
the extreme thirst suffered during the voyage, and disappointed in the knowledge that Diego
Velzquez had given precedence to Grijalva as the captain of the next expedition to Yucatn.
In 1523, ngel de Villafae sailed toward Mexico City, but was shipwrecked en route along the coast
ofPadre Island, Texas, in 1554. When word of the disaster reached Mexico City, the viceroy
requested a rescue fleet and immediately sent Villafae marching overland to find the treasure-laden
vessels. Villafae traveled to Pnuco and hired a ship to transport him to the site, which had already
been visited from that community. He arrived in time to greet Garca de Escalante Alvarado (a
nephew of Pedro de Alvarado), commander of the salvage operation, when Alvarado arrived by sea
on July 22, 1554. The team labored until September 12 to salvage the Padre Island treasure. This
loss, in combination with other ship disasters around the Gulf of Mexico, gave rise to a plan for
establishing a settlement on the northern Gulf Coast to protect shipping and more quickly rescue
castaways. As a result, the expedition of Tristn de Luna y Arellano was sent and landed
atPensacola Bay on August 15, 1559.
On December 11, 1526, Charles V granted Pnfilo de Narvez a license to claim what is now the Gulf
Coast of the United States, known as the Narvez expedition. The contract gave him one year to
gather an army, leave Spain, be large enough to found at least two towns of 100 people each, and
garrison two more fortresses anywhere along the coast. On April 7, 1528, they spotted land north of
what is now Tampa Bay. They turned south and traveled for two days looking for a great harbor the
master pilot Miruelo knew of. Sometime during these two days, one of the five remaining ships was
lost on the rugged coast, but nothing else is known of it.
In 1697, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville sailed for France and was chosen by the Minister of Marine to
lead an expedition to rediscover the mouth of the Mississippi River and to colonize Louisiana which
the English coveted. Iberville's fleet sailed from Brest on October 24, 1698. On January 25, 1699,
Iberville reached Santa Rosa Island in front of Pensacola founded by the Spanish; he sailed from
there to Mobile Bayand explored Massacre Island, later renamed Dauphin Island. He cast anchor
between Cat Island and Ship Island; and on February 13, 1699, he went to the mainland, Biloxi, with
his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville.
[15]
On May 1, 1699, he completed a fort on the
north-east side of the Bay of Biloxi, a little to the rear of what is now Ocean Springs, Mississippi. This
fort was known as Fort Maurepas or Old Biloxi. A few days later, on May 4, Pierre Le Moyne sailed
for France leaving his teenage brother, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, as second in command to the
French commandant.