![]() It is bordered by the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, and Sinaloa with a coastline of approximately 4,000 km (2,500 mi). The Gulf of California (Spanish: Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (Mar de Cortés) or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (Mar Bermejo), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland. The Gulf of California is home to 900 species of fish, 695 vascular plant species, 39% of the marine mammals in the world, and 1/3 of the planet’s marine cetacean species, making it the biologically richest body of water on Earth. Ulloa originally believed that the gulf led to the mythical Strait of Anian, which connected the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. It was named in honor of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés (or “Cortez”) by Francisco de Ulloa in 1539. It is enclosed by the Mexican mainland to the east and by the mountainous peninsula of Baja California to the west. The only solution to this problem is a list of synonyms.Gulf of California, also called Sea of Cortez, Spanish Golfo de California, or Mar de Cortés, large inlet of the eastern Pacific Ocean along the northwestern coast of Mexico. It's also important to be aware that most of the islands in the Gulf have been known over the years by more than one nameso that for example, if you see a reference in different sources to a species being found only on a particular island, but the references name different islands, it may simply be that they're using two different names for the same island. One is "Gulf of California," or "Golfo de California." The other is "Sea of Cortés," or "Mar de Cortés." Scholars tell us that the name of the explorer for whom the sea is named is correctly spelled with an "s" rather than a "z" (that is, "Cortez" is a historic misspelling). The body of water that separates the peninsula from mainland Mexico has two names, and both are used in both English and Spanish. "Peninsular California" is one solution somewhat less satisfactory is "greater Baja California." Ignoring the political boundaries, another problem is trying to find a name for the geological unit to the west of the San Andreas faultline. Incidentally, using "Baja" alone raises eyebrows as being the ungrammatical use of an adjective as if it were a noun (for example, one wouldn't refer to New York as just "New"). It's best to be explicit: "the State of Baja California," "the Baja California peninsula." Some prefer the old-fashioned "Lower California" as clearly referring to the peninsula and its islands, and not to the state. The problem, of course, is that if the northern state is called "Baja California," then what do we call the whole peninsula with two Mexican states? If a scientific report refers to "the plants of Baja California," does it mean of the whole peninsula or only half of it? And if you say "peninsula," does that include the nearby islands? No state of East Virginia was created when Virginia was divided. The correct name of the northern state is "Baja California," not "Baja California Norte." The easiest analogy for Americans is that it's like the names of Virginia and West Virginia. Things became more complicated when the peninsular portion was divided at the 28th parallel into a northern state called Baja California, and a southern territory, Baja California Surlater to become a state as well. At some point this large region was divided into Alta (Upper) Californiathe continental portion which became the state of California, and Baja (Lower) Californiathe peninsular portion which remained as part of Mexico. In the oldest European history of the regionwhen most of western North America was part of the Spanish colony of Mexico, and the peninsula to the west had just been discovered and was little exploredthe name "California" was applied to all of the peninsula and what is now the state of California in the United States. Below is an attempt to sort out some of the names. While we've tried to be consistent within any section of this site, it hasn't been possible to choose one "authoritative" usage throughoutbecause even the authorities disagree! Certainly the writers of the different sections do. And sometimes it might even be a result of misspellings or mispronunciations being passed down through time. Sometimes it's a result of historical and political changes in what certain areas are called. Sometimes this reflects the languages of the speakersSpanish, English, and indigenous Indian languages. Anyone interested in Baja California soon discovers that the same region or locality may be called by different names at different times, by different people, or on different maps.
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