CONTENTS 



Chapter Pago 

 I. Historical sketch of the explorations in the Gulf of Mexico. By Paul 



S. Galtsoff 3 



Sources 3 



Pre-Columbian era 3 



Discovery of the Gulf of Mexico 4 



Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 8 



Eighteenth century 18 



From the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present time 22 



Bibliography 32 



II. Geology. 



Shorelines and coasts of the Gulf of Mexico. By W. Armstrong Price 39 



Status of studies of coasts and shorelines 39 



Shoreline classification 39 



Sources of information 42 



Acknowledgments 43 



Structural and regional geo-oceanographic approach to shoreline descrip- 

 tion and classification 43 



Coasts and hinterland 43 



Regional coastal types 44 



Young erogenic coasts 44 



Alluvial coasts 46 



Drowned limestone-plateau coastal plains 48 



Biogenous environment 50 



Emergent and submergent shorelines of the Gulf 53 



Use of terms 53 



Submergent shoreline features 54 



Emergent shoreline features 55 



Shoreline changes and processes 58 



Shoreline simplification 58 



Equilibrium profiles of continental shelf bottom 59 



Directions of longshore drift 62 



References 62 



Geology of the Gulf of Mexico. By S. A. Lynch 67 



Early concepts 67 



Gulf coast geosyncline 68 



Geomorphology of Gulf of Mexico 71 



General characteristics 71 



Origin of major features 71 



Geomorphology by areas 72 



Eastern Gulf area 73 



Mississippi Delta area 73 



Northern Gulf of Mexico - 74 



Mexico 75 



Mexican Basin 75 



Sediments of Gulf of Mexico 75 



Source of sediments 75 



Place of deposition 76 



Early studies of submarine deposits 77 



Recent studies of submarine deposits 77 



Sedimentary provinces 78 



Eastern Gulf 78 



Mississippi Delta 80 



7495? 



