BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?

Subject: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 08:49 AM

On UK's quiz-show "Pointless", the following question was asked a few days ago
      
    "Name a country in the Americas with a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean?"

The first answer given by a contestant was "Mexico".
That answer was deemed to be correct.

Would any Americans or Mexicans out there also consider this to be correct?

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: MMario
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 10:26 AM

technically yes, the Gulf of Mexico is a part of the Atlantic Ocean.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 10:33 AM

But would anyone - ever - seriously say that New Orleans is on the Atlantic Ocean?

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 10:40 AM

In the British Isles, the Irish Sea and the North Sea are clearly arms of the Atlantic Ocean, but if anyone suggested that Newcastle, Liverpool etc have an Atlantic Ocean coastline they would surely be considered incorrect.

BTW, as all bodies of water flow into other bodies of water, is it clearly defined, for example, where the Atlantic Ocean ends and the Indian Ocean begins?

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: MMario
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 10:42 AM

Just because it isn't used doesn't make it false.

a gulf is "gulf - an arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land; larger than a bay"

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 10:47 AM

Yes, but if a gulf is an arm of a sea, then that sea is probably part of an ocean,and therefore, there are no seas and gulfs and bays, only oceans.
Apart, maybe, for the Mediteranean Sea. Or is that part of the Atlantic Ocean?

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: bobad
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 10:51 AM

From Wikipedia - FWIW:

"A sea is a large body of saline water that may be connected with an ocean or may be a large saline lake that, like the Caspian Sea, lacks a natural outlet. Sometimes the terms sea and ocean are used synonymously.[1]The Mediterranean Sea's area is 1,144,800 square miles. The average depth is 4,688 feet. The Mediterranean Sea is located in the Atlantic Ocean."

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: MMario
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 10:51 AM

boundaries of the three major oceans

The fourth ocean is the Artic; the newest is the Southern Ocean - created by fiat in 2000.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: bobad
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 10:57 AM

It seems that seas and gulfs are sub-divisions of oceans usually but not always defined by their relationship to adjoining land mass.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 11:17 AM

Yes, but all the main bodies of water on the planet are interlinked!
Therefore, one could claim that the Artic Ocean is an arm of the Antlantic Ocean! And, so is the Indian Ocean - or is it vice versa?
If 90% plus of the population of New Orleans don't consider themselves to have an Atlantic Ocean coastline - then they don't!
No matter what someone says is a - man determined - technically correct situation.

If you don't agree, then why not say France is part of Asia!
Why, because the identification/naming of land-masses - like oceans/seas etc - is something man has determined.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 11:44 AM

The waters of the Panama Canal must really confuse you. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: artbrooks
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 12:19 PM

One assumes that the quiz show participant...if not everyone else here...realizes that Mexico also has a coastline on the Atlantic but not on the Gulf of Mexico.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: MMario
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 12:33 PM

But that is on the Caribbean Sea - so the same arguments would work as for the Gulf of Mexico.

Tunesmith - the seperation of the world ocean into the five recognized oceans is a legal definition. And as I mentioned earlier, legally the "Southern Ocean" has only existed since 2000.

Some oceonographers consider the arctic Ocean to be an estuary arm of the Atlantic.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: MMario
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 12:37 PM

Interesting link regarding the "seven seas"

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 12:39 PM

MMario, legal according to whom?

Because if the majority of the world have problems with parts of that definition, then legal or not, it is incorrect!

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: MMario
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 12:44 PM

the International Hydrographic Organization
There are 68 over 80 member countries of the IHO and membership is limited to non-landlocked countries.

member countries

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 12:51 PM

All very interesting, but I think Brazil would have been a 'better' answer.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 22 Oct 12 - 12:54 PM

According to these experts, the Black Sea is part of the Atlantic Ocean! Really? What have those people been smoking?

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 12:15 AM

"Some oceonographers consider the arctic Ocean to be an estuary arm of the Atlantic."

Why not consider the Arctic Ocean to be part as well of the Pacific Ocean?

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 04:01 AM

Katharine Lee Bates agreed in 1893. If she hadn't, the line would have been "From sea to shining sea to shining sea."

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 04:27 AM

I discovered the Tyrrhenian sea this last summer. It's on the west coast of Italy, one of the many subdivisions of the Mediterranean sea.

Wikipedia has a long list of seas that are subdivisions of the Mediterranean. The only two that I "believe" in are the Adriatic and the Aegean.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: MMario
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 05:27 AM

Ebbie , probably because the connection of the Artic with the Atlantic is broad, and the connection with the Pacific is comparitivly very narrow. Also, the major OUT-flow from the arctic is INTO the Atlantic.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 08:25 AM

The more I think about this, the dafter it gets.
For example, the correct answer to the following question:-

         " On what body of water does Venice, Italy stand?"

could be, "The Atlantic Ocean"!

Pleae tell me that you think such an answer wouldn't be helpful ... or true!

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 11:24 AM

Italy is not on/in the Atlantic. Nor is Mexico in/on the Atlantic. However, most people can't locate their arses with two hands and a mirror let alone obscure places like Iran, China and Canada.

This thread had me looking at a few Youtube interviews (person on the street type things) and the ignorance of the average person shocks me. These people actually vote for our political leaders.

"Name a country that starts with the letter U." Two answers were Utah and Yugoslavia, I kid you not. I think if the interviewer had continued he would have also received Europe. Not one person in the video said United States or Uruguay. I was dumbfounded.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 01:31 PM

Looking at a map it seems perfectly reasonable to see the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea as part of the Atlantic Ocean in the same way the North Sea AND the Channelmare part of the Atlantic.

Unlike the Mediterranean Sea they not linked to the wider ocean by a narrow strait but by wide stretches of water, almost as wide as the seas that link the North and South Atlantic.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 02:07 PM

Custom enters the picture, too. Ask Canadians who live on the shores of Hudson Bay or James Bay if they live on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and they would look at you very puzzled.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 02:17 PM

They'd be right to. The link between Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean is even narrower than the Straits of Gibraltar.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,JTS
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 02:22 PM

I am puzzled. I was always sure that Hudson and Baffin bays are part of the Atlantic. I'm pretty sure we were taught that in school. Looking at the map and watching the flow of sea traffic it make sense to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 02:36 PM

I agree with you both that being part of the Atlantic makes sense. I too was taught that in school. Seems we were taught wrong.

http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/hydrology/watershed/1

Look about 1/2 way down that page.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 03:02 PM

Yes!!!! But aren't we taught that New Orleans is on the Gulf?
Or are we taught that New Orleans is on the Gulf which is really part of the Atlantic Ocean?

BTW, the Mediterannean Sea owes its existence to the Atlantic Ocean i.e. Africa was once joined to Spain by a land bridge, but, at some times during a period when sea levels rose, the land bridge was breached and the Mediterannean sea was created - or at least enlarged greatly.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: gnu
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 03:07 PM

The obvious answer is Canuckistan.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 03:09 PM

I think they reckon the Med is the remains of what they call the Tethys Sea, which was there before the Atlantic Ocean opened up.

Actually all the Oceans link up, and can be seen as part of one great World Ocean. Where we draw the lines between them is basically a matter of convention and convenience.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,jts
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 04:11 PM

keeping in mind that it is a gameshow, based on polling, I would think that the answer would be acceptable.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 04:24 PM

Well, this game show is based on questions that have been put to a random selection of the public. Then the contestants in the Tv studio have to find an answer that the public didn't come with ( i.e. pointless)
Now, if someone had asked me to name an obscure American country with an Atlantic coastline, then I would never have said Mexico because I would have thought that a) it is very well-known country, and b) most people - I would have thought - would have considered it to be on the Gulf.

Likewise, if the question was, "Name a famous musical city beginning with the letter "L" that is situated on the Atlantic coast", I would never have said Liverpool; although, that answer would have been technically correct.

Subject: RE: BS: Mexico's Atlantic Coastline?
From: gnu
Date: 23 Oct 12 - 10:00 PM

OR... it's orchastrated... written... contrived... to create contoversy? IF so, they are getting their money's worth.