The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bordered to the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; to the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo; and to the southeast by Cuba. The southern U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which lie along its northern edge, are often referred to as the "Third Coast" of the United States, alongside the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
The Gulf of Mexico was formed around 300 million years ago due to plate tectonic activity. It has an oval shape and spans about 810 nautical miles (1,500 km or 930 miles) in width. The gulf's floor is made up of sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Straits of Florida, which lie between the U.S. and Cuba, and to the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatán Channel, located between Mexico and Cuba. Due to its narrow link to the Atlantic, the gulf experiences minimal tidal fluctuations. The basin covers an area of about 1.6 million km² (620,000 sq mi), with nearly half of it consisting of shallow continental shelf waters. The water volume in the basin is roughly 2.4 million cubic kilometers (5.8×10⁵ cubic miles). The Gulf of Mexico is a key region for offshore petroleum production, contributing to around one-sixth of the United States' total oil output.
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