The
Gulf of Mexico is an
ocean basin largely surrounded by the
North American continent and the island of
Cuba.
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. In Texas and Louisiana it is often called the "Third Coast," in comparison with the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The shape of its basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles 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 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 mi². Almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. At its deepest it is 14,383 ft at the
Sigsbee Deep, an irregular trough more than 300 nautical miles long. The basin contains a volume of roughly 660 quadrillion gallons.
It was formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of
plate tectonics.
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