Why America's Tiny Ocean Defies Geography

[Uncle Joe]

The Gulf of Mexico is a weird body of water. It's almost completely tucked into the North American continent, mostly sealed off from everything else. But it's also he key part of the most important heat transfer in the entire world, effectively making it so that the continent of Europe can exist without turning into an icy tundra. So why is the Gulf of Mexico so important when it's almost a miracle that it exists at all?