Gulf of Mexico south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. US Gulf of Mexico Protraction areas Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely 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 Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida border the Gulf on the north, which are often referred to as
Gulf of Mexico basin center active contemporaneously in regards to geologic time. The transform boundary caused two approximately 22° counterclockwise rotations of the Yucatan Block away from the North American plate. One rotation happened prior to seafloor spreading, and the second rotation happened while the basin spread, creating the current geographical shape of the Gulf of Mexico and the current placement of the Yucatan Peninsula. The active rifting of the Late-Triassic to Mid-Jurassic, and the stratigraphy which depended strongly on that tectonic development, is followed by a relatively calm tectonic period in the Late-Jurassic. The Late-Jurassic Gulf of Mexico is characterized mostly by prolonged