Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), A new bathymetry map, created by integrating many 3-D seismic surveys, reveals the Gulf of Mexicos seafloor in unprecedented detail. News. After receiving a survey from a geophysical contractor or oil company, BOEM scientists use the data to assist with other important regulatory duties, such as assessing the geology for potential and discovered reservoirs of oil and gas. Most of those house-sized pixels in the new map are 1, 2, and 3 kilometers deep under the water, and the product contains 1.4 billion of them, making this a gigapixel map. During the Late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the Gulf of Mexico and progressed to the point that sea-floor spreading and formation of oceanic crust occurred. Sens., 11(6), p.723. BOEMs new map, derived exclusively from 3-D seismic data, doesnt cover as large an area as the NOAA/NGDC/GCOOS map, but its enhanced resolution and consistent pixel size reveal undiscovered and previously poorly resolved geologic features over the continental slope, salt minibasin province, abyssal plain, Mississippi Fan, and the Florida Shelf and Escarpment. Gulf of Mexico - Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory In most places, federal waters extend from where state waters end out to about 200 nautical miles or to where other country's waters begin. Oil shipping and drilling can spill tons of petroleum into the ecosystem. Nautical Charts Online - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Sawyer, D. S., R. T. Buffler, and R. H. Pilger, Jr., 1991, Ward, C.H., Tunnell, J.W. Gulf of Mexico, Spanish Golfo de Mxico, partially landlocked body of water on the southeastern periphery of the North American continent. The samples were collected for years by the former Minerals Management Service (renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement) to help predict the potential impacts of future oil/gas explorations. In addition to 15% of U.S. oil and 1% of natural gas, the Bureau estimates undiscovered recoverable oil is in the 23.31-to-36.27-Bbbl range, and gas resources between 46.88 Tcfg and 62.56 Tcfg . The major environmental threats to the Gulf are agricultural runoff and oil drilling. Above is a snippet of this map, roughly 220 kilometers wide . 13-63-SLP| May 28, 2013 BILOXI, Miss. The gulf's peculiar history gave rise to a . The signature of the Mississippi River is visible in satellite ocean color products. The deepest point is in the Mexico Basin (Sigsbee Deep), which is 17,070 feet (5,203 metres) below sea level. It is 17,070 feet (5,203 meters) below sea level in the Mexico Basin. This proportion, however, varies markedly during the year in coastal waters, particularly near the outflow of the broad delta region of the Mississippi River. 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. The team labored until September 12 to salvage the Padre Island treasure. Cleanup operations were resumed after conditions became favorable. spurs new tactics", "Gulf Oil Spill Worst in U.S. History; Drilling Postponed", "Shell Oil Spill Dumps Nearly 90,000 Gallons of Crude into Gulf", "Shell's Brutus production platform spills oil into Gulf of Mexico", Resource Database for Gulf of Mexico Research, Bathymetry of the Northern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean East of Florida, The Present State of the West-Indies: Containing an Accurate Description of What Parts Are Possessed by the Several Powers in Europe, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gulf_of_Mexico&oldid=1152376828, 3,750 to 4,384 metres (12,303 to 14,383ft), This page was last edited on 29 April 2023, at 21:42. The study area encompasses Gulf of Mexico coastal counties of the USA, as defined by the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act, and Mexican municipal districts bordering on Gulf of Mexico waters. Video footage from the ROV was an integral part of this outreach and used extensively in the Mystery Mardi Gras Shipwreck documentary.[37]. The Yucatn platform was emergent until the mid-Cretaceous. This leak created a visible 2 by 13 miles (3.2 by 20.9km) oil slick in the sea about 97 miles (156km) south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. BOEM researchers constructed the map using BOEMs confidential database of 3-D seismic surveys, each survey having been originally shot by the oil and gas industry in their search for hydrocarbons. The volume of water in the basin is roughly 2.4106 cubic kilometers (5.8105 cubic miles). Muller-Karger (2019). Leading up to the 13th anniversary (April 20) of one of the worst environmental disasters . Salt tectonics sculpt the geologic strata and seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico like few other places on Earth. The consensus among geologists[4][8][9] who have studied the geology of the Gulf of Mexico is that before the Late Triassic, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. The passengers aboard Robert E. Lee were primarily survivors of previous torpedo attacks by German U-boats. The marine chart shows depth and hydrology of Gulf Of Mexico on the map, which is located in the Veracruz, Texas, Florida state (La Perla, Fayette, Clay). of New Orleans, New Orleans, La. 4 Apr 1993. . As of 2017, this 3-D seismic database of confidential data covers 350,000 square kilometers of the Gulf of Mexico, an area larger than the state of New Mexico. Gulf of Mexico in Gulf of Mexico, International Waters (Google Maps) Particularly damaging hurricanes included one in Galveston, Texas, in 1900 and another in and around New Orleans in 2005. 237, 107 pp., Univ. New York: Liveright Publishing Corp. p. 416. Continental Shelf Research, p.103988. Cuba and Mexico: Exchange of notes constituting an agreement on the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone of Mexico in the sector adjacent to Cuban maritime areas (with map), of July 26, 1976. Garcia-Pineda, O., Y. Androulidakis, M. Le Hnaff, V. Kourafalou, L.R. 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. It extends approximately 1,247 kilometers and comprises two Mexican states; Baja California Sur and Baja California. Oysters are also harvested on a large scale from many of the bays and sounds. Gulf of Mexico Activities | Bureau of Ocean Energy Management The Gulf of Mexico is a semi-enclosed basin connected, to the south, to the Caribbean Sea, and to the North Atlantic Ocean to the east. A. Kendall (2002), Images of the base of gas hydrate stability, Northwest Walker Ridge, Gulf of Mexico, in OTC 2002: Deep into the Future, Pap. New Oceana report: the Deepwater Horizon disaster may happen again The only NOAA-approved nautical chart that. 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. (2013), Jurassic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico salt basin, AAPG Bull., 97, 16831710, https://doi.org/10.1306/04011312073. Geoscientists realized the potential they had available to them: They could combine the rest of their seafloor maps to cover most of the northern Gulf of Mexico under deep water. The Loop Current indeed carries warm waters from the Caribbean Sea into the colder Gulf of Mexico, and then into the North Atlantic Ocean. Almost half of the basin consists of shallow continental-shelf waters. This was compared with a 52% to 48% male-female ratio found in reference sites, showing an impairment of reproductive output for fish populations inhabiting hypoxic coastal zones. This attracts fish, shrimp, and squid. The German submarine U-166 was a Type IXC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. 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. 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. Iran seizes oil tanker in Gulf, U.S. Navy says - Yahoo News On July 30, 1942, the Robert E. Lee, captained by William C. Heath, was torpedoed by the German submarineU-166. Iran navy seizes tanker near Oman that was on way to Houston Get the most fascinating science news stories of the week in your inbox every Friday. Global Land One-kilometer Base Elevation (GLOBE) v.1. Bryant, W., et al. The salt, subjected to the immense pressure and heat of being buried kilometers deep, deformed like putty over time, oozing upward toward the seafloor. Corrections? Geol. [40], In 2001 the wreck of U-166 was found in 5,000 feet (1,500m) of water, less than two miles (3.2km) from where it had attacked Robert E. Lee. Kourafalou, V., Y. Androulidakis, M. Le Hnaff, and H. Kang (2017). The Bay of Campeche in Mexico constitutes a major arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Hastings, D. and P.K. When the tragic Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in 2010, marine biologists of NOAAs Natural Resource Damage Assessment division needed a detailed map of the seafloor surrounding the incident to model how many of those benthic communities may have been affected. The white dots mark the locations of both Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary sites. Bryant, W., et al. Villafae traveled to Pnuco and hired a ship to transport him to the site, which had already been visited from that community. [48] It was 8,776 square miles (22,730km2) in 2017, the largest ever recorded. DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in international waters on Thursday, the U.S. Navy said, the latest in a series of seizures or attacks on . The Gulf of Mexico consists of several ecological and geologic provinces, chief of which are the coastal zone, the continental shelf, the continental slope, and the abyssal plain. Currently, NOAA/AOML operates ocean gliders in the Atlantic hurricane region to detect the presence of warm waters that can influence hurricane evolution. On July 15, 2010, BP announced that the leak stopped for the first time in 88 days. [47], The Gulf contains a hypoxic dead zone that runs eastwest along the Texas-Louisiana coastline. This thinning created a broad zone of transitional crust, which displays modest and uneven thinning with block faulting, and a broad zone of uniformly thinned transitional crust, which is half the typical 40-kilometer (25mi) thickness of normal continental crust. The Gulf of Mexico is, however, unusually flat, with a gradient of only about 1 foot (0.3 meters) in every 8,000 feet (2,440 meters). 14103, 10 pp., Soc. Maps Depicting the 9 Potential AOA Options in the Gulf of Mexico This is excellent resolution, geophysically speaking, and for the past 2 decades the map has been a respected and popular regional data set within science, academia, and the oil and gas industry. WhatsApp Cancun (International) +52 1 984 141 5502. In July 2008, researchers reported that between 1985 and 2008, the area roughly doubled in size. The Deepwater Horizon disaster, 13 years ago, gushed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and caused estimated losses to the commercial seafood industry at nearly $1 billion. The various rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico drain a land area roughly double that of the gulf, and the salinity of the gulf is subject to wide variations. This land lay south of a continuous mountain range that extended from north-central Mexico, through the Marathon Uplift in West Texas and the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma, and to Alabama where it linked directly to the Appalachian Mountains. OpenSeaMap - The free nautical chart Within the depth range of 500 to 3300 meters (where the largest part of the grid exists), average error was calculated to be less than 0.5% of water depth. Geol., Univ. Gulf of Mexico, International Waters (IW) Like. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Occurrences of masculinization and estrogen suppression were observed as a result. Mexico City and Tlatelolco, 26 July 1976 Maritime Boundary: Cuba . Cuba and United States: Maritime boundary agreement between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, of December 16, 1977. What is the deepest point in the Gulf of Mexico? of Texas at Austin. International waters - Wikipedia 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. As early as the Maya Civilization, the Gulf of Mexico was used as a trade route off the coast of the Yucatn Peninsula and present-day Veracruz. Gulf of Mexico - Wikipedia Pet. The .gov means its official. 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. Tweet. Otis, D.B., M. Le Hnaff, V.H. 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 Current system. On September 10, 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center reported that a magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred about 250 miles (400km) west-southwest of Anna Maria, Florida, around 10:56am EDT. Additionally, the gulf's shoreline is fringed by numerous bays and smaller inlets. The Dynamics of Cuba Anticyclones (CubANs) and Interaction With the Loop Current/Florida Current System. SpaceXs giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off on its first test flight and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, A new National Academy of Science study says that 13 years after a massive BP oil spill fouled the Gulf of Mexico, regulators and industry have reduced some risks in deep water exploration in the gulf but some troublesome safety issues persist, Offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico give off much more methane emissions than official estimates, according to a study published Monday. Eng., Richardson, Texas, https://doi.org/10.4043/14103-MS. Meyer, D., et al. The deepest point of the Gulf of Mexico is called Sigsbee Deep. 4 Jul 1991. Gulf of Mexico | gulf, North America | Britannica The Mexican portion of the Gulf coastline spans 1,743 miles (2,805km). Para espaol, por favor haga clic aqu Key Message: NOAA Fisheries requests your comments on the proposed rule implementing regulations for Amendment 1 to each of the Puerto Rico, St. Croix, and St. Thomas and St. John Fishery Management Plans.. Amendment 1 addresses the use and definition of buoy gear, which is a type of hook-and-line gear type used by commercial fishermen targeting deep . 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. Iran navy seizes Marshall Islands oil tanker in Gulf of Oman Because subsidence occurred faster than sediment could fill it, the Gulf of Mexico expanded and deepened. Salt, buried kilometers deep, deformed like putty over time, oozing upward toward the seafloor. Other important industries along the coast include shipping, petrochemical processing and storage, military use, paper manufacture, and tourism. This fort was known as Fort Maurepas or Old Biloxi. In 1517, Francisco Hernndez de Crdoba discovered the Yucatn Peninsula. # Status of multilateral conventions and instruments in respect of which the International Maritime Organization or its Secretary-General . After both platforms were submerged, the formation of carbonates and evaporites has characterized the geologic history of these two stable areas. [38] The wreck's precise location was discovered during the C & C Marine survey that located the U-166. The climate of the gulf region varies from tropical to subtropical. Pin. Max. To the south it is bounded by the coasts of Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama; to the west by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and the Yucatn Peninsula of Mexico; to . [26] 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. Iran's navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday amid wider tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, the latest-such capture in a waterway crucial . Animation of the monthly mean SST in the Gulf of Mexico during the latest twelve months. HMS Volage, its bow blown apart by a mine laid by Albania in the North Corfu Channel, is towed to harbor in 1946 (Imperial War Museums) The Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius is most often cited for his contributions to the development of international laws of war. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6million km2 (615,000sqmi). 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. An archaeological survey of the seafloor before the construction of a natural gas pipeline led to the discoveries by C & C Marine archaeologists Robert A. Geologists and other Earth scientists agree in general that the present Gulf of Mexico basin originated in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within Pangea. Hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico officially runs from June 1 to November 30. Johnson, L. McEachron, and H.-S. Kang (2019). There are frequent "red tide" algae blooms[46] that kill fish and marine mammals and cause respiratory problems in humans and some domestic animals when the blooms reach close to shore. For example, a Loop Current Ring was involved in the intensification of Hurricane Opal in 1995, and of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Finally, the Gulf of Mexico is also part of the North Atlantic warm pool that forms in summer. Muller-Karger, V.H. [6], The International Hydrographic Organization defines the southeast limit of the Gulf of Mexico as:[7]. You can analyze and combine datasets using maps. A less well-defined pattern exists in the western gulf. It may happen again. Haus, G. Novelli, C. Guigand, and H. Kang (2018). Evaluation of Gulf of Mexico oceanographic observation networks, impact assessment on ecosystem management and recommendations (NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program, 09/01/2015-08/31/2019, M. Le Hnaff Lead PI), Influence of river induced fronts on hydrocarbon transport (01/01/2016-12/31/2019, Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative GoMRI), Southeastern Gulf of Mexico processes affecting basin-wide connectivity and hydrocarbon transport: the role of mesoscale eddies and upwelling near Cuba (01/01/2018-12/31/2019, GoMRI, M. Le Hnaff Co-PI). Before sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal government site. [28] From 1970 to 2020, surface temperatures warmed at approximately twice the rate observed for the global ocean surface. NOAA biologists, aware of BOEMs expansive seafloor database, requested that its geoscientists create a semiregional map that NOAA could use to model the area affected by the oil plume. NOAA Technical Memorandum NESDIS NGDC-24. Geol., 18, 479486, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-8172(00)00071-4. Obtaining permission from these seven companies took months, much longer than anticipated, but eventually, BOEM received all necessary permissions and began the publication process. 1 Feb 1999. At this point, sufficient circulation with the Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. Roberts, H. H., and R. S. Carney (1997), Evidence of episodic fluid, gas, and sediment venting on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope, Econ. Iran navy seizes tanker near Oman that was on way to Houston DUBAI, United Arab Emirates . During periods when the volume of the Mississippis flow is greatest, salinities as low as 14 to 20 parts per thousand occur as far as some 20 to 30 miles (30 to 50 km) offshore. . [19] Seven main areas are given as:[citation needed]. Both of these channels are about 100 miles (160 km) wide. Le Hnaff, M., and V. H. Kourafalou (2016). Posamentier, H. (2003), Depositional elements associated with a basin floor channel-levee system: Case study from the Gulf of Mexico,Mar. Bottom-water temperatures of about 43 F (6 C) have been recorded near the northern part of the Yucatn Channel. The large Chlorophyll-a values in red are associated with brackish waters from river origins. They compact, deform, squeeze into cracks, and balloon into overlying material. [59], On May 12, 2016, a release of oil from subsea infrastructure on Shell's Brutus oil rig released 2,100 barrels of oil. In July 2015 BP reached an $18.7bn settlement with the US government, the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, as well as 400 local authorities. Omissions? These organisms consume the hydrocarbons and hydrogen sulfide released from those seeps. As geologic time progressed, river deltas and marine microfossils deposited thousands more meters of sediments into the basin, atop the thick layer of salt. The Office of Coast Survey depicts on its nautical charts the territorial sea (12 nautical miles . The seaward boundaries of the study area extend to the Yucatan Channel and the Straits of Florida. GULF OF MEXICO Stats: Title: GULF OF MEXICO: This chart covers part of America's Great Loop: Scale: 1:2160000: Min Longitude-98.11: Min Latitude: 17.78 . The Gulf of Mexico borders the southeastern coast of North America. 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. There were no reports of damage or injuries. Buffler, R. T., and D. S. Sawyer (1985), Distribution of crust and early history, Gulf of Mexico Basin, Trans. Caribbean Sea, suboceanic basin of the western Atlantic Ocean, lying between latitudes 9 and 22 N and longitudes 89 and 60 W. It is approximately 1,063,000 square miles (2,753,000 square km) in extent. Go back. Regional Report- Gulf of Mexico [27] River drainage and atmospheric fallout from industrial coastal cities also provide nutrients to the coastal zone. Bathymetry is ripe with active faults and escarpments, slump blocks and slides, canyons and channels, sediment waves, pockmarks and mud volcanoes, and other natural oil and gas seeps. The Straits of Florida, Florida Straits, or Florida Strait (Spanish: Estrecho de Florida) 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 (U.S.) and Cuba.It is 93 mi (150 km) wide at the narrowest point between Key West and the Cuban shore, and has been sounded to a . Total Gulf Offshore : 6.7: Federal Gulf of Mexico : 6.4: Gulf States Offshore : 0.3 : Total Offshore Percent of Total Reserves : 1%: Total Gulf Offshore Percent of Total Reserves : 1%: Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Proved Reserves, Year-end 2017 : U.S. Gulf Coast Operable Refinery Capacity As Of . Res. Kourafalou, M. Le Hnaff, H.-S. Kang, T. Sutton, S. Chen, C. Hu, and N. Ntaganou (2019). Nautical navigation features include advanced instrumentation to gather wind speed direction, water temperature, . It has been called the "Jacuzzi of Despair". DUBAI . Although the Spanish voyage of Christopher Columbus was credited with the discovery of the Americas by Europeans, the ships in his four voyages never reached the Gulf of Mexico. The organizations compiled it using data from various multibeam sonar surveys and 2-D seismic lines spaced kilometers apart, providing a resolution of up to 2500 square meters per pixel. Maps . First, there was a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds. 600000 surface area (sq mi) 17070 max. Since this would extend Mexico's continental shelf well into territory claimed by the United States, however, Mexico and the U.S. would need to enter a bilateral agreement based on international law that delimits their respective claims. [50], Microplastics within semi-enclosed seas like the Gulf have been reported in high concentrations and the Gulf's first such study estimated concentrations that rival the highest globally reported. The black arrows are the velocity vectors measured by the on-board current-meter from May 21 to 26, 2015. Church and Daniel J. Warren. The Gulf of Mexico is a very warm body of water, so storms can often increase their strength. PC-566 began dropping depth charges on a sonar contact, sinking U-166. The basin is unusually flat, having a gradient of only about 1 foot (0.3 metre) in every 8,000 feet (2,440 metres). Pollution also threatens life in the Gulf of Mexico. Meandering masses of water, called loop currents, break off from the main stream and also move clockwise into the northeastern part of the gulf. In 1973 the United States Environmental Protection Agency prohibited the dumping of undiluted chemical waste by manufacturing interests into the Gulf and the military confessed to similar behavior in waters off Horn Island. Cent., Texas A&M Univ., College Station. State Waters' Boundary Extended, Federal Regulations Still Apply Where Do International Waters Begin? - HistoryNet Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans, 123, 3259-3285. and Offshore Technol. view from tx . More information on the meetings was found at: https://www.boem . Boundary Maps and Management Zones. The gulfs greatest east-west and north-south extents are approximately 1,100 and 800 miles (1,800 and 1,300 km), respectively, and it covers an area of some 600,000 square miles (1,550,000 square km). The Gulf of Mexico took shape approximately 300million years ago as a result of plate tectonics. Amante, C. and B.W. Gulf of Mexico, Spanish Golfo de Mxico, partially landlocked body of water on the southeastern periphery of the North American continent. During the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous, the basin occupied by the Gulf of Mexico experienced a period of cooling and subsidence of the crust underlying it. During this time, meteorologic and oceanographic conditions are conducive for hurricanes to develop anywhere in the gulf. [29], The Gulf is considered aseismic; however, mild tremors have been recorded throughout history (usually 5.0 or less on the Richter magnitude scale). (2004), Deep-sea furrows: Physical characteristics, mechanisms of formation and associated environmental processes, RPSEA Rep. 0018-04, 4 pp., Dep. NOAA Gulf of Mexico Data Atlas - National Centers for Environmental Another fascinating feature of the Gulf of Mexico is the signature of the Mississippi River, one of the largest rivers in the world, which discharges gigantic amounts of fresh water and nutrients into the Gulf.