By: Anthony Dicandia

-Roughly 265 million-years-ago, during the Mesozoic Era, the land surrounding the Gulf of Mexico was covered by shallow seas.
-The Mesozoic Era is broken into three time periods; the Triassic, the Jurassic and the Cretaceous
-The shallow seas created numerous salt deposits and lead to the formation of slat domes.
-Salt domes form when salt rises from the underneath the ground, and intrudes into the above layers of sediment.
-The land surrounding the Gulf of Mexico is the largest region of Salt domes in the United States. More than 500 salt domes have been discovered onshore and underneath the Gulf of Mexico. There are salt domes in parts of Texas, Louisiana Mississippi and Alabama.
-Salt from the salt domes is mined and used for everything as far as table salt, to the salt we use to deice highways. Salt dome can also serve as natural gas and oil reservoirs.