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Atlantic hurricane tracking chart

The Gulf of Mexico covers more than 700,000 square miles in Southeast North America. It is bordered by the coast of the United States from Florida to Texas and the East coast of Mexico from Tamaulipas to Yucatán. The near entrance to the Gulf at its northern edge of the island of Cuba, where Gulf connects to the Atlantic Ocean at the Straits of Florida. The Gulf Stream current is formed from waters of both the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

The Caribbean Sea is approximately a 970,000 square mile arm of the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered on the North and East by the West Indies archipelago, on the South by South America and on the West by the Central American Isthmus. The Caribbean has a counterclockwise current: water enters through the Lesser Antilles. Volcanic activity and earthquakes are common in the Caribbean, as are destructive hurricanes that originate over the sea or the Atlantic.

For more information on hurricanes in these regions, see the National Hurricane Center.

- Columbia gazetteer of the world, 1998

Iraq

Iraq or Republic of Iraq, (area:167,924 sq. mi./434,924 sq. km.; 2003 est. pop. 24,683,313) Covering a land area slightly smaller than the state of Texas with a population slightly larger than that state, Iraq is bordered by the countries of Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf.

Contemporary Iraq occupies territory traditionally considered the site of the earliest civilizations of the ancient Near East. This ancient fertile region known as Mesopotamia (the land between the rivers), was the site of a number of flourishing civilizations including the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians. Mesopotamia fell to the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century and fell under Ottoman administration until the 19th century when it came to constitute the 3 Turkish provinces of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul. At this time the area became of great interest to the European powers and by the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) Iraq was established as a mandate of the League of Nations under British administration. One year later, in 1921, the country was made a kingdom headed by Faisal I and Iraq was officially admitted to the League of Nations in 1932. In 1958, following a military coup, Iraq proclaimed itself a republic and Islam was declared the national religion. During the 1960's the Baath party emerged as the ruling political power and in 1979 Saddam Hussein assumed control of the government. Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq from 1979 to 2003.

Baghdad, the capital, is located in central Iraq on the banks of the Tigris River and has a population (5.6 million) slightly smaller than New York , NY (8.1 million).

- CIA World Fact Book, State Department Background Notes, Columbia Gazetteer, 8/2003, 10/2000, 1998

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