Green Canyon facts for kids

Location in the United States

Green Canyon is a special area in the Gulf of Mexico. It's known for having many oil fields, which are places where oil and natural gas are found deep under the sea. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management helps manage this important area.

Many different oil companies work in Green Canyon. They operate various oil fields, like Atlantis, Marco Polo, K2, Manatee, Shenzi, Droshky, and Tahiti. Some of the companies include BP, Anadarko Petroleum, Shell, BHP Billiton, Marathon Oil, and Chevron Corporation. These companies work to bring the oil and gas from deep below the ocean floor to the surface.

Amazing Ocean Life

One part of Green Canyon, called Bush Hill (Block 185), is a very interesting place. It's known as a cold seep. This means that cold, chemical-rich water seeps out from the seafloor.

These cold seeps create a unique environment where amazing creatures can live. You can find many tube worms there. These worms don't need sunlight to survive; they get their energy from the chemicals coming out of the seafloor.

Bush Hill was also the first place in the Gulf of Mexico where scientists found gas hydrates. Gas hydrates are like ice, but instead of just water, they contain natural gas trapped inside. They look like frozen chunks of gas.

Underground Salt Layers

Like much of the Gulf of Mexico, Green Canyon has a lot of what scientists call salt tectonics. This means there are huge layers of salt deep underground. Over millions of years, these salt layers can move and shift.

When the salt moves, it can push up the rock layers above it. This movement creates special shapes and structures in the seafloor. These structures can sometimes trap oil and gas, forming the oil fields we find today.

Green Canyon's Weather

The weather in Green Canyon is very warm and humid all year round. It has a tropical rainforest climate, which means it's hot and rainy. Even in winter, it stays warm, and temperatures almost never drop below freezing.

Summers are especially hot and muggy, with very little change in temperature between day and night. This is because Green Canyon is far from any land, so the ocean greatly influences its weather.

Hurricanes and Storms

The warm, humid air and warm ocean water in summer and autumn are perfect for tropical cyclones, also known as Atlantic hurricanes. The ocean water in this area stays above 26 °C (78.8 °F) from late May to late October. This temperature is usually warm enough for hurricanes to form and grow stronger.

The water can get as warm as 30 °C (86 °F) in August. Rain falls throughout the year, but it's heaviest in late summer during the peak of hurricane season. There's also a lot of rain in winter, and the driest time is in late spring.

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