The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish Countries where Spanish has official status. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population: Golfo de México) is the eleventh largest body of water A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water, usually covering the Earth or another planet. The term body of water most often refers to large accumulations of water, such as oceans, seas, and lakes, but it may also include smaller pools of water such as ponds, puddles or wetlands. Rivers, streams, canals, and other in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106,400,000 square kilometres , it covers approximately twenty percent of the Earth's surface and about twenty-six percent of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the ", it is an ocean basin Hydrologically, an oceanic basin may be anywhere on Earth that is covered by seawater, but geologically ocean basins are large geologic basins that are below sea level. Geologically, there are other undersea geomorphological features such as the continental shelves, the deep ocean trenches, and the undersea mountain ranges which are not considered largely surrounded by the North American North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean; South America lies to the southeast continent and the island of Cuba The Republic of Cuba (pronounced /ˈkjuːbə/ ; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] ( listen)) is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States The Gulf Coast of the United States, sometimes referred to as the Gulf South, South Coast, or 3rd Coast, comprises the coasts of American states that are on the Gulf of Mexico. These states are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and are known as the Gulf States. All Gulf States are located in the Southern region of the United, on the southwest and south by Mexico In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba The Republic of Cuba (pronounced /ˈkjuːbə/ ; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] ( listen)) is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second. The shape of its basin is roughly oval and approximately 810 nautical miles The nautical mile is a unit of length corresponding approximately to one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian. By international agreement it is exactly 1,852 metres (approximately 6,076 feet) (1,500 km) wide and filled with sedimentary rocks and debris. It is part of the Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106,400,000 square kilometres , it covers approximately twenty percent of the Earth's surface and about twenty-six percent of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the " through the Florida Straits The Straits of Florida, Florida Straits, Florida Strait, or Strait of Havami is a strait located south-southeast of the North American mainland, generally accepted to be between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and between the Florida Keys and Cuba. The strait carries the Florida Current, the beginning of the Gulf Stream, from the Gulf between the U.S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded to the southwest by the Central American countries of Panama, to the west by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, to the north by The Greater Antilles , and to the east by the Lesser Antilles (with which it forms the American Mediterranean Sea In oceanography, a mediterranean sea is a mostly enclosed sea that has limited exchange of deep water with outer oceans and where the water circulation is dominated by salinity and temperature differences rather than winds) via the Yucatan Channel The Yucatán Channel is a strait between Mexico and Cuba. It connects the Caribbean Sea with the Gulf of Mexico between Mexico and Cuba. Tidal ranges Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth. The tides occur with a period of approximately 12 hours and 25 minutes, and with an amplitude that is influenced by the alignment of the sun and moon and the shape of the near-shore are extremely small due to the narrow connection with the ocean. The gulf basin is approximately 615,000 mi² The square mile is an imperial and US unit of measure for an area equal to the area of a square of one statute mile. It should not be confused with miles square, which refers to the number of miles on each side squared. For instance, 20 miles square (20 × 20 miles) is equal to 400 square miles (1.6 million km²). Almost half of the basin is shallow intertidal waters. At its deepest it is 14,383 ft (4,384 m) at the Sigsbee Deep The Sigsbee Deep is the deepest part of the Gulf of Mexico. The actual maximum depth is disputed and estimates range between 3,750 and 4,384 metres . The average depth of the Gulf is roughly 1,615 metres (5,300 ft). The Sigsbee Deep is a trough that extends more than 300 miles (480 km) and is often called the "Grand Canyon under the sea.", an irregular trough more than 300 nautical miles The nautical mile is a unit of length corresponding approximately to one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian. By international agreement it is exactly 1,852 metres (approximately 6,076 feet) (550 km) long. It was probably formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of the seafloor sinking.^[1]

Extent

The International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization was originally established in 1921 as the International Hydrographic Bureau (IHB). The present name was adopted in 1970 as a result of a revised international agreement among member nations. However, the former name International Hydrographic Bureau was retained for the IHO's administrative body of three defines the southeast limit of the Gulf of Mexico as follows:^[2]

A line joining Cape Catoche Light (21°37′N 87°04′W / 21.617°N 87.067°W) with the Light on Cape San Antonio in Cuba The Republic of Cuba (pronounced /ˈkjuːbə/ ; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] ( listen)) is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second, through this island to the meridian of 83°W and to the Northward along this meridian to the latitude of the South point of the Dry Tortugas The Dry Tortugas are a small group of islands, located at the end of the Florida Keys, USA, about 70 miles west of Key West, and 37 miles (60 km) west of the Marquesas Keys, the closest islands. Still further west is the Tortugas Bank, which is completely submerged. The first Europeans to discover the islands were the Spanish in 1513 by explorer (24°35'N), along this parallel Eastward to Rebecca Shoal (82°35'W) thence through the shoals and Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a chain-like cluster of about 1700 islands in the southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about 15 miles south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry Tortugas. The to the mainland at eastern end of Florida Bay Florida Bay is the shallow bay located between the southern end of the Florida mainland and the Florida Keys. Its area is variously stated to be 800 square miles (2,100 km2), or 850 square miles (2,200 km2), or 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2). Nearly all of Florida Bay is included in Everglades National Park. The southern edge, along the Florida, all the narrow waters between the Dry Tortugas and the mainland being considered to be within the Gulf.

Geology

Little is known about the geologic history of the Gulf of Mexico Basin before Late Triassic The Late Triassic is in the geologic timescale the third and final of three epochs of the Triassic period. The corresponding series is known as the Upper Triassic. In the past it was sometimes called the Keuper, after a German lithostratigraphic group that has a roughly corresponding age. The Late Triassic spans the time between 228.0 ± 2 Ma and 1 time. Some authors have postulated the presence of a basin in the area during most of Paleozoic The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era (from the Greek palaios , "old" and zoe (ζωή), "life", meaning "ancient life") is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Paleozoic spanned from roughly 542 to 251 million years ago (ICS, 2004), and is subdivided into six geologic periods; from oldest to time, but most evidence seems to indicate that Paleozoic rocks do not underlie most of the Gulf of Mexico basin and that the area was, at the end of Paleozoic time, part of the large supercontinent of Pangea Pangaea, Pangæa, or Pangea was the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration, the result of the collision of several continental plates.^[3]

The present Gulf of Mexico basin is believed to have had its origin in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within the North American Plate The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland, Cuba, Bahamas, and parts of Siberia and Iceland. It extends eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and westward to the Chersky Range in eastern Siberia. The plate includes both continental and oceanic crust. The interior of the main continental landmass includes an as it began to crack and drift away from the African The African continent is home to many different ethnic groups and people of wide-ranging phenotypical traits, both indigenous and foreign to the continent. Many of these populations have diverse origins, with differing cultural, linguistic and social traits and mores. Distinctions within Africa's geography, such as the varying climates across the and South American South America is the southern continent of America, situated in the Western and Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest plates. Rifting probably continued through Early and Middle Jurassic The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 199.6± 0.6 Ma to 145.5± 4 Ma, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era, also known as the "Age of Reptiles". The start of the period is marked by the major Triassic– time with the formation of "stretched" or "transitional" continental crust The continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks which form the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves. This layer is sometimes called sial due to more felsic, or granitic, bulk composition, which lies in contrast to the oceanic crust, called sima due to its throughout the central part of the basin. Intermittent advance of the sea into the continental area from the west during late Middle Jurassic time resulted in the formation of the extensive salt deposits Evaporites are water-soluble mineral sediments that result from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water. Evaporites are considered sedimentary rocks such as the Louann Salt. It appears that the main drifting episode, during which the Yucatan Yucatán is one of the 31 states of Mexico, located on the north of the Yucatán Peninsula. The Congress of Yucatan was installed on August 20, 1823; and was admitted to the Mexican federation on 21 December 1823, being the 8th state admitted. The Yucatan peninsula includes three states: Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo; all three modern block moved southward and separated from the North American Plate and true oceanic crust formed in the central part of the basin, took place during the early Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic epoch of the Jurassic Period is the unit of geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago, which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata. In European lithostratigraphy, the name Malm indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age. In the past this name was also used to indicate the unit of geological time, but this usage, after the formation of the salt deposits.^[3]

In 2002 geologist Michael Stanton published a speculative essay suggesting an impact origin An impact event is the collision of a large meteorite, asteroid, comet, or other celestial object with the Earth or another planet. Impact events have been a plot and background element in science fiction since knowledge of real impacts became established in the scientific mainstream for the Gulf of Mexico at the close of the Permian The Permian[note 1] is a geologic period and system characterized among land vertebrates by the diversification of the early amniotes into the ancestral groups of the mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs and archosaurs. The Permian Period follows the Carboniferous and extends from 299.0 ± 0.8 to 251.0 ± 0.4 Ma . It is the last period of the Paleozoic, which could have caused the Permian–Triassic extinction event.^[4]

Since Late Jurassic time, the basin has been a stable geologic province characterized by the persistent subsidence of its central part, probably due at first to thermal cooling and later to sediment loading as the basin filled with thick prograding clastic wedges along its northwestern and northern margins, particularly during the Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era is the most recent of the three classic geological eras and covers the period from 65.5 million years ago to the present. It is marked by the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous that saw the demise of the last non-avian dinosaurs and the end of the Mesozoic Era. The Cenozoic era is ongoing.^[3]

To the east, the stable Florida With an area of 65,758 square miles , it is ranked 22nd in size among the 50 U.S. states. Florida has the most coastline in the Contiguous United States encompassing approximately 1,200 miles. The state has four large urban areas, a number of smaller industrial cities, and many small towns platform was not covered by the sea until the latest Jurassic or the beginning of Cretaceous The Cretaceous , Latin for "chalky", usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide (chalk), is a geologic period and system from circa 145.5 ± 4 to 65.5 ± 0.3 million years (Ma) ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic Period and is followed by the Paleogene Period of the Cenozoic Era. It is the time. The Yucatan platform was emergent until the mid-Cretaceous. After both platforms were submerged, the formation of carbonates In chemistry, a carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, CO2−3. The name may also mean an ester of carbonic acid, an organic compound containing the carbonate group O=C2 and evaporites Evaporites are water-soluble mineral sediments that result from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water. Evaporites are considered sedimentary rocks has characterized the geologic history of these two stable areas. Most of the basin was rimmed during the Early Cretaceous by carbonate platforms, and its western flank was involved during the latest Cretaceous and early Tertiary The Tertiary is a term for a geologic period 65 million to 1.8 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and the Quaternary. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, at the start of the Cenozoic era, spanning to the beginning of in a compressive deformation episode, the Laramide Orogeny The Laramide orogeny was a period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the orogeny are in dispute, as is the cause. The Laramide orogeny occurred in a series of pulses, with quiescent, which created the Sierra Madre Oriental The Sierra Madre Oriental is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico, spanning 1000 km from Coahuila south through Nuevo León, southwest Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, and Hidalgo to northern Puebla, where it joins with the east-west running Eje Volcánico Transversal of central Mexico of eastern Mexico In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico.^[3]

Today, there are 7 main areas of the gulf:^[3]

• Gulf of Mexico Basin, which contains the Sigsbee Deep The Sigsbee Deep is the deepest part of the Gulf of Mexico. The actual maximum depth is disputed and estimates range between 3,750 and 4,384 metres . The average depth of the Gulf is roughly 1,615 metres (5,300 ft). The Sigsbee Deep is a trough that extends more than 300 miles (480 km) and is often called the "Grand Canyon under the sea." and can be further divided into the continental rise, the Sigsbee Abyssal Plain, and the Mississippi Cone.

• Northeast Gulf of Mexico, which extends from just east of the Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta is the distinct northwest section of the state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. Technically not a delta but part of an alluvial plain, created by regular flooding over thousands of years, this region is remarkably flat and contains some of the most fertile soil in the world. It includes all near Biloxi Biloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, in the United States. The 2000 census recorded the population as 50,644, although the 2008 Census Estimate placed the population at 45,670. Along with Gulfport, Biloxi is a county seat of Harrison County to the eastern side of Apalachee Bay.

• South Florida Continental Shelf and Slope, which extends along the coast from Apalachee Bay to the Straits of Florida and includes the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas.

• Campeche Bank, which extends from the Yucatan Straits in the east to the Tabasco–Campeche Basin in the west and includes Arrecife Alacran.

• Bay of Campeche, which is an isthmian embayment extending from the western edge of Campeche Bank to the offshore regions just east of the port of Veracruz.

• Western Gulf of Mexico, which is located between Veracruz to the south and the Rio Grande to the north.

• Northwest Gulf of Mexico, which extends from Alabama to the U.S.-Mexico border.

History

European exploration

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 and Hispaniola.

The first European exploration of the Gulf of Mexico was 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 to Spain, a famous world map, depicting Cuba as an island, was produced.

In 1506, Hernán Cortés took part in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, receiving a large estate of land and Indian slaves for his effort. In 1510, he accompanied Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, an aide of the governor of Hispaniola, in his expedition to conquer Cuba. In 1518 Velázquez put him in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization.

In 1517, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba discovered the Yucatán Peninsula. This was the first European encounter 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 Hernán Cortés, which led to the Spanish exploration, military invasion, and ultimately settlement and colonization known as the Conquest of Mexico. Hernández 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 Velázquez had given precedence to Grijalva as the captain of the next expedition to Yucatán.

In 1523, Ángel de Villafañe sailed toward Mexico City, but was shipwrecked en route along the coast of Padre Island, Texas, in 1554. When word of the disaster reached Mexico City, the viceroy requested a rescue fleet and immediately sent Villafañe marching overland to find the treasure-laden vessels. Villafañe traveled to Pánuco and hired a ship to transport him to the site, which had already been visited from that community. He arrived in time to greet García 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 Tristán de Luna y Arellano was sent and landed at Pensacola Bay on August 15, 1559.

On December 11, 1526, Charles V granted Pánfilo de Narváez a licence to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States, known as the Narváez 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 24 October 1698. On January 25, 1699, Iberville reached Santa Rosa Island in front of Pensacola founded by the Spanish; he sailed from there to Mobile Bay and 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.^[5] 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.

Principal features

The Gulf of Mexico's eastern, north, 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 thirty-three major rivers that drain 31 states.^[6] The Gulf's southwestern and southern shores lie along the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and the northernmost tip of Quintana Roo. The Mexican portion of the Gulf coastline spans 1,394 miles (2,243 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 Yucatán 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.^[7] River drainage 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-Yucatán Current-Loop Current system. 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 in the northern gulf, and the Grijalva and Usumacinta 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 Yucatán 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 and its entire water column is warm. When a hurricane passes over, although the water temperature may drop it soon rebounds and becomes capable of supporting another tropical storm.^[8]

The Gulf is considered aseismic: however, mild tremors have been recorded throughout history (usually 5.0 or less on the Richter scale). A 6.0 tremor was recorded on September 10, 2006, 250 miles (400 km) off the coast of Florida which caused no damage, but could be felt throughout the Southeastern United States. No damage or injuries were reported.^[9] Earthquakes such as this may be caused by interactions between sediment loading on the sea floor and adjustment by the crust.^[10]

Pollution

There are frequent "red tide" algae blooms^[11] that kill fish and marine mammals and cause respiratory problems in humans and some domestic animals when the blooms reach close to shore. This has especially been plaguing the southwest and southern Florida coast, from the Florida Keys to north of Pasco County, Florida.

In July 2008, researchers reported that the dead zone that runs east-west, from near Galveston, Texas, to near Venice, Louisiana, was about 8,000 square miles (21,000 km²), nearly the record. Between 1985 and 2008, the area roughly doubled in size.^[12]

2006 earthquake

On September 10, 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center reported that a strong earthquake, ranking 6.0 on the Richter scale, occurred about 250 miles (400 km) west-southwest of Anna Maria, Florida, around 10:56 AM EDT.

The quake was reportedly felt from Louisiana to Florida. There were no reports of major damages or casualties.^[13] Items were knocked from shelves and seiches were observed in swimming pools in parts of Florida.^[14] The earthquake was described by the USGS as a midplate earthquake, the largest and most widely felt recorded in the past three decades in the region.^[14]

According to the September 11, 2006 issue of The Tampa Tribune, earthquake tremors were last felt in Florida in 1952, recorded in Quincy, 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Tallahassee.

See also

• Territorial evolution of the Caribbean
• Brine pool
• Charlotte Harbor Estuary, Florida
• Gulf Coast
• Jack 2 (a test well in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico)
• Outer Continental Shelf
• Orca Basin

References

1. ^ "General Facts about the Gulf of Mexico". http://www.epa.gov/gmpo/about/facts.html. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
2. ^ "Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition". International Hydrographic Organization. 1953. http://www.iho-ohi.net/iho_pubs/standard/S-23/S23_1953.pdf. Retrieved 7 February 2010.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} gulfbase.org
4. ^ Is the Gulf's Origin Heaven Sent? by Michael S. Stanton Explorer magazine article "Is the Gulf's Origin Heaven Sent?"
5. ^ Kevin Knight (2009). "Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville" (HTML). newadvent.org. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07614b.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-08.
6. ^ "National Water Program Guidance: FY 2005". epa.gov. http://www.epa.gov/water/waterplan/documents/05guidance.htm#gulf. Retrieved 2007-01-21.
7. ^ "GULF OF MEXICO". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/GG/rrg7.html.
8. ^ "Warm Waters Provide Fuel for Potential Storms". NASA Earth Observatory. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17038. Retrieved 2006-05-05.
9. ^ "Central Florida Feels Quake". http://www.wftv.com/news/9817047/detail.html. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
10. ^ "Earthquakes in the Gulf of Mexico". http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/russo/florida_eq.html. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
11. ^ "The Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone and Red Tides". http://www.tulane.edu/~bfleury/envirobio/enviroweb/DeadZone.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
12. ^ Joel Achenbach, "A 'Dead Zone' in The Gulf of Mexico: Scientists Say Area That Cannot Support Some Marine Life Is Near Record Size", Washington Post, July 31, 2008
13. ^ Observer News
14. ^ ^{a b} United States Geological Survey, 11 September 2006

External links

• Resource Database for Gulf of Mexico Research
• 6.0 Earthquake reported on 9-10-2006
• GSA article on Gulf seismic activity from 1982
• EPA factsheet on hypoxia
• Gulf of Mexico hypoxia
• Gulf of Mexico Integrated Science
• Northern Gulf Institute
• "Mexico, Gulf of". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.

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Coordinates: 25°N 90°W / 25°N 90°W

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