The Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is a partially landlocked ocean basin and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located on the southeastern periphery of the North American continent. It is bounded on the north by the Gulf Coast of the United States (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida), on the west and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo, and on the southeast by Cuba.

The Gulf is connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Straits of Florida, between Florida and Cuba, and to the Caribbean Sea by the Yucatán Channel, between the Yucatán Peninsula and Cuba. Both passages are about 100 miles (160 km) wide. Its maximum extent is about 1,100 miles (1,800 km) east–west and 800 miles (1,300 km) north–south, covering an area of roughly 600,000 square miles (1,550,000 square km).

The Gulf of Mexico began to take shape around 300 million years ago due to plate tectonics. The name has been in use since at least the late 16th century. Coastal areas along the southern United States are commonly referred to as the Gulf Coast, and sometimes as the country’s "Third Coast," in addition to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.