The Gulf

Here's the stuff I picked up about the Gulf of Mexico, the setting for the sad deaths of three football players this past week.

Size: roughly 950 miles from east to west, and 550 miles from north to south.

Shape: It's described as a large pit, with a broad, shallow rim. This is what I found most fascinating in listening to the Coast Guard description of the area of the search, when the fellow said the CG was searching 30 to 50 miles offshore in 35 to 50 feet of water. So far out, and only 35 to 50 feet deep? That's the shelf that comprises the rim, the light blue area in the graphic above.

The shallows and intertidal areas are 38% of the surface.

Areas more than 3,000 meters in depth represent 20% of the area--with the deepest part estimated at over 12,000 feet deep!

Volume: here's a number so big as to be incomprehensible. The volume of water is 643 quadrillion gallons. Quadrillion is 10 to the 17th power.

Water flow: water enters the Gulf through the Yucatan strait and circulates in a clockwise fashion and exits through the Straits of Florida. 20 river systems--more than 150 rivers--drain into the Gulf. 280 trillion gallons of fresh water annually flows into the gulf, with about 55% of that coming from the Mississippi River.

Energy: 1/8 of U.S. oil and 1/4 of U.S. produced natural gas are produced by offshore drilling operations in the Gulf.

Food: 25% of total U.S. fish production comes from the Gulf, $900 million annually.

States: the Gulf touches 5 U.S. states and 6 Mexican states.

Dead Zones: these are areas of low oxygen, crippling the water's ability to support marine life. At the Mississippi delta there is a dead zone in the Gulf the size of the state of New Jersey. This is the result of the runoff of agricultural chemicals into and through the Mississippi River.

I like to splash on the beach, too.