The Paradox of Drowned Reefs: A Caribbean Example Mapped Using SeaMARC II Side-Scan Sonar: ABSTRACT

Abstract

Three models for the drowning of carbonate platforms and associated fringing coral reefs include (1) rapid submergence below the euphotic zone by tectonic subsidence and sea level rise; (2) excess nutrients in the water; and (3) burial by prograding marine siliclastic sediments. To examine these mechanisms on a regional scale, the authors mapped drowned barrier reef tracts around the active carbonate banks of the Nicaraguan Rise using SeaMARC II sidescan sonar, 3.5 KHz, and digital single channel reflection techniques. The reef tracts exhibited high sonar backscatter and were prominently displayed on sidescan images. Characteristic features of the reef tracts include (1) uneroded and slightly sinuous mounds that crop out on the sea floor and closely following bathymetric contours; (2) reef mounds that typically occur in stairstep sets of two to three terraces; (3) water depths at the crest of the reef mounds that range from 1,050 to 1,500 m; and (4) reef mounds that extend for 1,200 km around the base of the slope (depth 1,300 m) of an active carbonate platform in a moderately active, intraplate setting (Pedro Bank) and along the crest of a submerged fault block in a highly active, interplate setting (Bay Islands Ridge, ridge crestmore » depth at 1,600 m). Because these newly discovered reef tracts have not been dredged, their ages and compositions remain unknown. Based on the observed sea floor outcrop, regional extent, and approximate correlation in water depth of the reef tracts, mechanisms 1 and 2 appear to be the most likely drowning mechanisms.« less