Everything about The Bahama Banks totally explained
The
Bahama Banks are the submerged
carbonate platforms that make up much of the
Bahama Archipelago. The term is usually applied in referring to either the
Great Bahama Bank around
Andros Island, or the
Little Bahama Bank of
Grand Bahama Island and
Great Abaco, which are the largest of the platforms, and the
Cay Sal Bank north of
Cuba. The islands of these banks are politically part of the
Bahamas. Other banks are the three banks of the
Turks and Caicos Islands, namely the Caicos Bank of the
Caicos Islands, the bank of the
Turks Islands, and wholly submerged
Mouchoir Bank. Further southeast are the equally wholly submerged
Silver Bank and
Navidad Bank north of the
Dominican Republic.
Geologic History and Structure
The
limestone that comprises the Banks has been accumulating since at least the
Cretaceous period, and perhaps as early as the
Jurassic; today the total thickness under the Great Bahama Bank is over 4500
meters.
(External Link
),
(External Link) As its limestones were deposited in shallow water, the only way to explain this massive column is to estimate that the entire platform has subsided under its own weight at a rate of roughly 3.6
centimeters per 1,000 years.
(External Link)
The waters of the Bahama Banks are very shallow; on the Great Bahama Bank they're generally no deeper than 25
meters.
(External Link) The slopes around them however, such as the border of the
Tongue of the Ocean in the Great Bahama Bank, are very steep. The Banks were dry land during past
ice ages, when sea level was as much as 120 meters lower than at present; the area of the Bahamas today thus represents only a small fraction of their prehistoric extent.
(External Link)(External Link) When they were exposed to the
atmosphere, their limestones were subjected to
chemical weathering that created the
caves and
sinkholes common to
karst terrain, resulting in structures like
blue holes.
(External Link)Further Information
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