Thirty-two years ago, the Gulf Coast Section of SEPM convened its 3rd Annual Research Conference on the Jurassic of the Gulf Rim (Ventress et al., 1984). At that time, the Mesozoic was being explored onshore as conventional carbonate and sandstone reservoirs, the Cantarell Field (Mexico) was in its early stages of production, and offshore areas of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico were primarily Cenozoic reservoir targets. Today, the Mesozoic is known to contain large discovered volumes in unconventional shale reservoirs onshore, Cantarell is in decline, and Mesozoic discoveries are being made in the ultradeep water of the Desoto and Mississippi canyons. Mexico has opened for international exploration, and political events in Cuba may eventually cause it to follow suit. This increased economic interest in the Mesozoic of the Gulf of Mexico has in turn spurred a huge volume of scientific research and increased investment in research and access to samples from wells in previously undrillable regions. New seismic refraction surveys are revealing the deep crustal structure of the basin and its early Mesozoic history. In particular, attention is beginning to focus on the presalt rift basins. State of the art seismic reflection surveys are illuminating the subsalt domain of both the U.S. and Mexico deep water. New techniques, such as detrital zircon geochronology, are reconstructing the continental scale drainage systems that feed into the basin, while new exploration in the deep water has identified sand fairways farther offshore than anyone expected. Advances and new concepts in economically important disciplines such as salt tectonics, depositional systems, source rock development, migration, and charge have proved equally important scientifically and have yielded new insights into the formation and evolution of the Gulf of Mexico Basin.

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