Episode 2842
Gulf of Mexico
Wed, 2025-Feb-12 01:55 UTC
Length - 3:12
Direct Link
Welcome to Popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.
With 429,416 views on Tuesday, 11 February 2025 our article of the day is Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo; and on the southeast by Cuba. The coastal areas along the Southern U. S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which border the gulf on the north, are occasionally referred to as the "Third Coast" of the United States (in addition to its Atlantic and Pacific coasts), but more often as, "the Gulf Coast".
The Gulf of Mexico took shape approximately 300 million years ago (mya) as a result of plate tectonics. The Gulf of Mexico basin is roughly oval in shape and is approximately 810 nmi (1,500 kilometres; 930 miles) wide. Its floor consists of sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Straits of Florida between the U. S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatán Channel between Mexico and Cuba. Because of its narrow connection to the Atlantic Ocean, the gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km2 (620,000 sq mi). Almost half of the basin consists of shallow continental shelf waters. The volume of water in the basin is roughly 2.4 million cubic kilometres (580 thousand cubic miles). The gulf is one of the most important offshore petroleum production regions in the world, making up 14% of the United States' total production. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico also contributes to weather across the United States and is a critical factor in the development of severe weather in Tornado Alley.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:55 UTC on Wednesday, 12 February 2025.
For the full current version of the article, see Gulf of Mexico on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm neural Kendra.
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