The accumulation of abundant geologic and geophysical information about the Gulf of Mexico Basin during the last few decades has contributed significantly to the understanding of the geologic history of this important geologic province—its birth during Late Triassic-Jurassic time, and the subsequent geologic events that have given the basin its present configuration.

Much of this information has been the product of extensive surface and sub-surface geologic studies, geophysical surveys, and drilling around the periphery of the basin, mainly in connection with the exploration for oil and gas. More recently, invaluable data have been obtained in the previously little-known central...