Department of the Gulf north. On November 3, 1863, the northern boundary was extended to latitude 33° north. On July 25, 1863, the department/district was transferred to the Department of Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana. It remained in that department only until January 28, 1864, when it was transferred to the Department of Alabama and Eastern Mississippi. Upon being transferred, the department/district boundaries were redefined as beginning at the mouth of the Pearl River, running north to latitude 32° north, east to the Georgia State line and south to the Gulf of Mexico. On May 8, 1864, the boundary was again modified to define the
Gulf of Mexico basin shallow-marine siliciclastics; eventually sediments grade into the Cretaceous carbonates, evaporites, and chalks. More recently, the Laramide Orogeny and consequential uplift of the Rocky Mountains, which led to increased sediments flooding the gulf, is responsible for the rapid loading and burial of the Wilcox Formation (pg 43), which is one of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico formations currently being exploited for hydrocarbons. This rapid loading is also responsible for the first salt flows from beneath the basin-margin region towards the continental slope. Gulf of Mexico basin The formation of the Gulf of Mexico, an oceanic rift basin located between North America