A new high-resolution map of the floor of the Gulf of Mexico was released to the public recently. Parts of interest, particularly along the coasts of Louisiana and Texas have become one of the most geologically interesting stretches of the Earth’s surface.

According to nationalgeographic.com, the strange geology of the floor of the Gulf is mostly caused by thick underlying layers of salt. Scientists think the salt probably accumulated around the time when Africa was just starting to separate from the Americas around 200 million years ago. At that point, the Gulf was probably a separate basin that was filled with seawater that later evaporated, leaving a blanket of salt behind. Later, as the basin became a gulf, the salt was covered with sediment deposited by rivers.

In 2010, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) created a way to make a high-resolution map by combining the data from several 3-D seismic surveys that several exploration companies had done in small area of the Gulf. After that project was successfully completed, they realized they could map the whole Gulf of Mexico the same way. This led to compiled data from more than 200 individual maps made by exploration companies, which has given us this extremely detailed and pixelated updated record. For more information on the new high resolution map, you can read the full article here.