An arm of the Atlantic Ocean, c.700,000 sq mi, SE North America. The Gulf stretches more than 1,100 mi from west to east and c.800 mi from north to south. It is bordered by the southeast coast of the United States from Florida to Texas, and the east coast of Mexico from Tamaulipas to Yucatán.
The Rio Grande, or the Rio Bravo del Norte, its formal Mexican name, rises in the San Juan Mountains in southeastern Colorado and then runs south for 1,885 miles through the state of New Mexico, passing Taos, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces before following the full length of the border between Texas and Mexico.
country S North America S of the United States; a republic capital Mexico area 759,530 square miles (1,972,544 square kilometers), population 89,995,000.
