Gulf of Mexico numerous bays and smaller inlets. A number of rivers empty into the gulf, most notably the Mississippi River and Rio Grande in the northern gulf, and the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers in the southern gulf. The land that forms the gulf's coast, including many long, narrow barrier islands, is almost uniformly low-lying and is characterized by marshes and swamps as well as stretches of sandy beach. The Gulf of Mexico is an excellent example of a passive margin. The continental shelf is quite wide at most points along the coast, most notably at the Florida and Yucatán Peninsulas. The shelf
Offshore drilling on the Atlantic coast of the United States in March 2010 that it intended to open oil and gas leasing in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic planning areas. However, in May 2010, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the administration cancelled the only scheduled Atlantic lease sale, for an area offshore Virginia. On December 1, 2010, the Obama Administration closed Atlantic and eastern Gulf areas to drilling. Commercial oil and gas drilling has never occurred offshore Virginia. Unlike the offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which occurs in both state and federal waters, the proposed offshore Virginia drilling would be exclusively in Federal waters more than from