MEXICO, GULF OF

The Gulf of Mexico. Spanish Golfo de Mxico, a partially landlocked body of water on the southeastern periphery of the North American continent. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Straits of Florida, running between the peninsula of Florida and the island of Cuba, and to the Caribbean Sea by the Yucatn Channel, which runs between the Yucatn Peninsula and Cuba. Both these channels are about 100 miles (160 kilometres) wide. The gulf's greatest east-west and north-south extents are approximately 1,100 and 800 miles, respectively, and it covers an area of some 600,000 square miles (1,550,000 square kilometres). To the northwest, north, and northeast it is bounded by the southern coast of the United States, while to the west, south, and southeast it is bounded by the east coast of Mexico. Spanish Golfo De Mxico, body of water on the southeastern coast of North America, connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Straits of Florida and to the Caribbean Sea by the Yucatn Channel. It is bounded on the northwest, north, and northeast by the United States, on the west, south, and southeast by Mexico, and on the east by Cuba. Oval in shape, the gulf covers an area of some 600,000 square miles (1,550,000 square km). The deepest point is in the Mexico Basin (Sigsbee Deep), which lies 17,070 feet (5,203 m) below sea level. The Gulf Stream, a riverlike current of warm water, enters from the Caribbean Sea through the Yucatn Channel and flows out to the Atlantic Ocean via the Straits of Florida; it is the principal current moving oceanic waters into and out of the gulf. The Mississippi and the Rio Grande are the major rivers draining into the gulf. The Gulf of Mexico's salinity varies from about 36 parts per 1,000 in open waters to as few as 14 to 20 per 1,000 in the north near the outflow of the Mississippi. In winter, surface-water temperatures range from 64 F (18 C) in the north to 76 F (24 C) in the south off the Yucatn coast; in summer the temperatures can reach 90 F (32 C). From June through October hurricanes can develop in the gulf from tropical storms spawned in the South Atlantic. The gulf serves as a major source of food, energy, and raw minerals; its coastal waters are also much used for recreation and for disposing of wastes. Red snapper, flounder, shrimp, mullet, oyster, and crab provide the basis for commercial fishing in the gulf; tarpon and king mackerel are caught for sport. Oil and natural-gas reserves on the continental shelf alone are enormous. The major ports on the gulf are Veracruz in Mexico and Galveston, New Orleans, Pensacola, and Tampa in the United States. Additional reading Robert R. Stickney, Estuarine Ecology of the Southeastern United States and Gulf of Mexico (1984); and Joseph C. Britton and Brian Morton, Shore Ecology of the Gulf of Mexico (1989), provide detailed information and numerous illustrations on the physical and biological features of the basin. Information on offshore hydrocarbon resources is available in the studies by Michel T. Halbouty, Salt Domes: Gulf Region, United States & Mexico, 2nd ed. (1979); and by Dietmal Schumacher and Bob F. Perkins (eds.), Gulf Coast Oil and Gases (1990), a comprehensive set of articles from a conference on the basin's geology and geophysics. Robert S. Weddle, Spanish Sea: The Gulf of Mexico in North American Discovery, 15001685 (1985), discusses early European involvement and interests in the region. A wide-ranging narrative that juxtaposes modern industrial development with the region's natural physical beauty is Robert Lee Maril, Cannibals and Condos: Texans and Texas Along the Gulf Coast (1986). James M. Broadus Matthew J. LaMourie