From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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
Yucatan 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.
[1]
The Gulf was formed by
plate tectonics
about 300 million years ago.
[2]
- ↑
"Gulf of Mexico Fact Sheet"
.
U.S. Energy Information Administration
.
Archived
from the original on December 18, 2020
. Retrieved
March 26,
2018
.
- ↑
Huerta A.D. & Harry D.L. 2012.
Wilson cycles, tectonic inheritance, and rifting of the North American Gulf of Mexico continental margin
.
Geosphere
.
8
(1):GES00725.1, March 6, 2012.
doi
:
10.1130/GES00725.1