Gulf Coast of the United States of the Gulf Coast. The following table lists the 15 largest MSAs along the Gulf Coast. Gulf Coast of the United States The Gulf Coast of the United States is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and these are known as the "Gulf States". The economy of the Gulf Coast area is dominated by industries related to energy, petrochemicals, fishing, aerospace, agriculture, and tourism. The large cities of the region are (from west
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