The Gulf of Mexico Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and parts of the northern Caribbean plate margin were surveyed using GLORIA (Geologic LOng-Range Inclined Asdic) during the U.S. Geological Survey EEZ-SCAN program. In the Gulf of Mexico, the first cruise was conducted in 1982 and three more were completed in the summer and fall of 1985. The survey of U.S. waters around Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands was completed during a twenty-five-day cruise in the fall of 1985 as well. In addition, surveys were conducted in the Cayman Trough and north of Hispaniola during a transit in 1985 from the Gulf of Mexico to the Caribbean. In total, these surveys mapped approximately 600,000 km2 of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean EEZ along survey tracklines that were spaced 10 to 30 km apart. The data collected included digital GLORIA sidescan sonar images, 40- to 160-in3 airgun and 3.5-kHz seismic-reflection profiles, 10-kHz bathymetry profiles, and total magnetic field measurements.

The Gulf of Mexico is a small, geologically diverse ocean basin that can be divided into three distinct geologic provinces: a salt deformation province underlying the continental slope of the northern and western Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi Canyon and Fan system in the central Gulf, and a carbonate province along its eastern and southern boundaries.