Gulf of Mexico 1979, the "Ixtoc I" oil platform in the Bay of Campeche suffered a blowout leading to a catastrophic explosion, which resulted in a massive oil spill that continued for nine months before the well was finally capped. This was ranked as the largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico until the "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill in 2010. On April 20, 2010, the "Deepwater Horizon" oil platform, located in the Mississippi Canyon about off the Louisiana coast, suffered a catastrophic explosion; it sank a day-and-a-half later. It was in the process of being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment, to
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