jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pBright reflections are observed within the upper 1,000 m of the water column along a seismic reflection profile that traverses the northern margin of the Gulf of Mexico. Independent hydrographic calibration demonstrates that these reflections are primarily caused by temperature changes associated with different water masses that are entrained into the Gulf along the Loop Current. The internal wave field is analyzed by automatically tracking 1,171 reflections, each of which is greater than 2 km in length. Power spectra of the horizontal gradient of isopycnal displacement, <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/jgrc22577-math-0001.png" xlink:title="urn:x-wiley:21699275:media:jgrc22577:jgrc22577-math-0001" />, are calculated from these tracked reflections. At low horizontal wave numbers ( <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/jgrc22577-math-0002.png" xlink:title="urn:x-wiley:21699275:media:jgrc22577:jgrc22577-math-0002" /> cpm), <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/jgrc22577-math-0003.png" xlink:title="urn:x-wiley:21699275:media:jgrc22577:jgrc22577-math-0003" />, in agreement with hydrographic observations of the internal wave field. The turbulent spectral subrange is rarely observed. Diapycnal diffusivity, jats:italicK</jats:italic>, is estimated from the observed internal wave spectral subrange of each tracked reflection using a fine‐scale parametrization of turbulent mixing. Calculated values of jats:italicK</jats:italic> vary between <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/jgrc22577-math-0004.png" xlink:title="urn:x-wiley:21699275:media:jgrc22577:jgrc22577-math-0004" /> and <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/jgrc22577-math-0005.png" xlink:title="urn:x-wiley:21699275:media:jgrc22577:jgrc22577-math-0005" /> mjats:sup2</jats:sup> sjats:sup−1</jats:sup> with a mean value of <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/jgrc22577-math-0006.png" xlink:title="urn:x-wiley:21699275:media:jgrc22577:jgrc22577-math-0006" /> mjats:sup2</jats:sup> sjats:sup−1</jats:sup>. The spatial distribution of turbulent mixing shows that <jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="graphic/jgrc22577-math-0007.png" xlink:title="urn:x-wiley:21699275:media:jgrc22577:jgrc22577-math-0007" /> mjats:sup2</jats:sup> sjats:sup−1</jats:sup> away from the shelf edge in the upper 300 m where stratification is strong. Mixing is enhanced by up to 4 orders of magnitude adjacent to the shoaling bathymetry of the continental slope. This overall pattern matches that determined by analyzing nearby suites of CTD casts. However, the range of values recovered by spectral analysis of the seismic image is greater as a consequence of significantly better horizontal resolution.</jats:p>