Lighthouse Reef, Belize
Outstanding clarity! The Scuba divers had about 150 ft of excellent visibility for their dives today. For the snorkelers, we weren’t in such depths, but the water was super both in the morning at Half Moon Cay, and in the afternoon for our visit near Long Cay. Both relatively small islands belong to the much larger coral atoll known as “Lighthouse Reef”, one of the very few coral atolls in the Western Hemisphere. An “atoll” is a ring-like coral island or reef, which completely or partially surrounds an interior lagoon. Geoscientists working with the oil industry were the first to realize that the barrier reef, which extends from the Bay of Honduras all the way north to Northern Belize (which we have been following these past days), has a fascinating physical history. This barrier reef line describes the direction of a gigantic fault system, which sits between two tectonic plates. Slow but steady movement over the eons have resulted in tremendous forces and wrinkles in the earth’s crust. The topography of the ocean floor around here is truly awesome…trenches that go down as far as 10,000 feet (and here we were impressed with the measly 3,000 feet under our ship’s keel this afternoon)!! But what a day. Most of us came back waterlogged, with wrinkled fingertips and an avid thirst for both liquids and knowledge. Barracuda and jacks and snappers under the ship by day (and I mean under the ship…as we pendulum-swung at the buoy, the fish would scurry to keep the ship overhead and not get left behind), and huge tarpon joined the ranks at night. Caught in the lights off the stern, their silver bodies flashed during quick-turns. They were thought to be sharks for the longest time, for their sheer size and weight, twice the bulk of anything else swimming out there. Tonight after dinner Emma spoke of gods and goddesses, planets and stars, all crisp details in the clear heavens above. Today both underwater and overhead favored us with outstanding clarity.
Outstanding clarity! The Scuba divers had about 150 ft of excellent visibility for their dives today. For the snorkelers, we weren’t in such depths, but the water was super both in the morning at Half Moon Cay, and in the afternoon for our visit near Long Cay. Both relatively small islands belong to the much larger coral atoll known as “Lighthouse Reef”, one of the very few coral atolls in the Western Hemisphere. An “atoll” is a ring-like coral island or reef, which completely or partially surrounds an interior lagoon. Geoscientists working with the oil industry were the first to realize that the barrier reef, which extends from the Bay of Honduras all the way north to Northern Belize (which we have been following these past days), has a fascinating physical history. This barrier reef line describes the direction of a gigantic fault system, which sits between two tectonic plates. Slow but steady movement over the eons have resulted in tremendous forces and wrinkles in the earth’s crust. The topography of the ocean floor around here is truly awesome…trenches that go down as far as 10,000 feet (and here we were impressed with the measly 3,000 feet under our ship’s keel this afternoon)!! But what a day. Most of us came back waterlogged, with wrinkled fingertips and an avid thirst for both liquids and knowledge. Barracuda and jacks and snappers under the ship by day (and I mean under the ship…as we pendulum-swung at the buoy, the fish would scurry to keep the ship overhead and not get left behind), and huge tarpon joined the ranks at night. Caught in the lights off the stern, their silver bodies flashed during quick-turns. They were thought to be sharks for the longest time, for their sheer size and weight, twice the bulk of anything else swimming out there. Tonight after dinner Emma spoke of gods and goddesses, planets and stars, all crisp details in the clear heavens above. Today both underwater and overhead favored us with outstanding clarity.
