Abstract
Introduction
Located to the southeast of the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan continental shelf (also known as Banco de Campeche), is an area rich in fishing resources, and in gas and oil deposits. Historically, it was first sailed by the Mayans and later by European galleons, brought to these waters by the north-equatorial Atlantic current and by the trade winds, that are characteristic of the region. It is a wide shallow marine region where the ocean floor plays an important role in the friction of its currents, and in the height of the waves, characterized by its low speed and low height, respectively. It is a tropical region with abundant amount of rain, where the karst nature of its geology causes rainwater to be absorbed by the ground and there are almost no rivers on its surface, only one to the west of the peninsula overflowing to the sea (the Champoton River). To the north of the peninsula, the contributions of fresh water of continental origin occur through the subsoil through different water holes scattered along the seabed, causing the salinity in most of the platform to be influenced mainly by evaporation processes and to a lesser extent due to precipitation.
The oceanographic region that surrounds this platform is very dynamic, to the east is the Yucatan current characterized by very high speed flows, to the north and northeast is the Lazo current with the mesoscale eddies that emerge from it and travel towards the west of the GoM, to the west is the Bay of Campeche, a deep sea area (> 3000 m depth) characterized by the presence of a semi-permanent cyclonic eddy. Comparatively, the ocean currents within this platform are so slow that the marine flows within it seem to be isolated from the adjacent area, however this is not the case, there is an exchange of properties between the two although limited by the shallow depth of this to wide platform that acts as a barrier between it and the surrounding sea.