Gulf of Mexico 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. To date BP's cost for the clean-up, environmental and economic damages and penalties has reached $54bn. According to the National Response Center, the oil industry has thousands of minor accidents in the Gulf of Mexico every year. On May 12, 2016, a release of oil from subsea infrastructure on Shell's "Brutus" oil rig released 2,100 barrels of oil. This leak created a visible 2 mile by 13 mile oil slick in the sea about 97 miles
Gulf of Mexico basin evaporite sediments deposited after the opening of the Gulf of Mexico has become the Florida Platform. Salt in the Gulf of Mexico can be divided into two main regions: the Northern Gulf of Mexico salt basin and the Campeche salt basin; interpreted to have formed simultaneously. Also referred to as the Louann and the Yucatan Salt basins. Salt deposition in the Gulf of Mexico is poorly dated; the Louann Salt has no index fossils and the age is based on the ages of formations below and above. Salt deposition began in the Jurassic after the first rotation of the Yucatan