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Tortugas Banks
The Tortugas Banks are coral reefs that developed on a foundation of Pleistocene karst limestone at depths of 20 to 40 m. The banks are extensive with low coral diversity, but high coral cover. The most conspicuous coral is Montastraea cavernosa, and black coral (Antipatharia) are common on the outer bank edges. The banks are also used by groupers and snappers that support a major fishery. The banks lie within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. *Tortugas Bank is the westernmost feature of the Florida Keys, but it is a submarine feature, wholly submerged, without any islands or above-water rocks. The least known depth is 11 meters. A depth of less than 18 meters is found in a circle of 4 km diameter around the center of the bank. Tortugas Bank is about 14 km west of Loggerhead Key, the westernmost islet of the Dry Tortugas Dry Tortugas National Park is a national park located about west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. The park preserves Fort Jefferson an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tortugas Bank
The Tortugas Banks are coral reefs that developed on a foundation of Pleistocene karst limestone at depths of 20 to 40 m. The banks are extensive with low coral diversity, but high coral cover. The most conspicuous coral is Montastraea cavernosa, and black coral (Antipatharia) are common on the outer bank edges. The banks are also used by groupers and snappers that support a major fishery. The banks lie within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. *Tortugas Bank is the westernmost feature of the Florida Keys, but it is a submarine feature, wholly submerged, without any islands or above-water rocks. The least known depth is 11 meters. A depth of less than 18 meters is found in a circle of 4 km diameter around the center of the bank. Tortugas Bank is about 14 km west of Loggerhead Key, the westernmost islet of the Dry Tortugas Dry Tortugas National Park is a national park located about west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. The park preserves Fort Jefferson an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Montastraea Cavernosa
''Montastraea'' is a genus of colonial stony coral found in the Caribbean seas. It is the only genus in the monotypic family Montastraeidae and contains a single species, ''Montastraea cavernosa'', known as great star coral. It forms into massive boulders and sometimes develops into plates. Its polyps are the size of a human thumb and fully extend at night. Description Great star coral colonies form massive boulders and domes over 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter in waters of shallow and moderate depths. In deeper waters, this coral has been observed growing as a plate formation. It is found throughout most reef environments, and is the predominant coral at depths of 40–100 feet (12.2-30.5 m). This coral occasionally has a fluorescent red or orange color during daytime; it has recently been suggested that this hue is due to phycoerythrin, a cyanobacterial protein. It appears that, in addition to symbiotic zooxanthella, this coral harbors endocellular symbiotic cyanobacteria, p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. It includes the Florida Reef, the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. It also has extensive mangrove forest and seagrass fields. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, designated in 1990, is the ninth national marine sanctuary to be established in a system that comprises 13 sanctuaries and two marine national monuments. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary protects approximately of coastal and ocean waters from the estuarine waters of south Florida along the Florida Keys archipelago, encompassing more than 1,700 islands, out to the Dry Tortugas National Park, reaching into the Atlantic Ocean, Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The mission of the sanctuary is to protect the marine resources of the Florida Keys while facilitating human uses that are consistent with the primary objective of resource protection. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry Tortugas. The islands lie along the Florida Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and defining one edge of Florida Bay. At the nearest point, the southern part of Key West is just from Cuba. The Florida Keys are between about 24.3 and 25.5 degrees North latitude. More than 95 percent of the land area lies in Monroe County, but a small portion extends northeast into Miami-Dade County, such as Totten Key. The total land area is . As of the 2010 census the population was 73,090 with an average density of , although much of the population is concent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loggerhead Key
Loggerhead Key is an uninhabited tropical island within the Dry Tortugas group of islands in the Gulf of Mexico. At approximately 49 acres (19.8 hectares) in size, it is the largest island of the Dry Tortugas. Despite being uninhabited, the island receives visitors, such as day visitors and campers. The island only has a few built structures, including the Dry Tortugas Light and a lightkeeper's house that was constructed in the 1920s. The island has drinking water derived using desalination technology and solar power. The Carnegie Marine Biological Laboratory operated on Loggerhead Key from 1904 to 1939. Climate Loggerhead Key has a tropical savannah climate ( Aw). Summers are long, hot and year round. The rainy season lasts from June to October with light rainfall when compared to the rest of Florida. Loggerhead Key is likely the driest place in Florida with the lowest amount of precipitation inches and precipitation days, being far from the Florida mainland where afternoon th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dry Tortugas
Dry Tortugas National Park is a national park located about west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. The park preserves Fort Jefferson and the seven Dry Tortugas islands, the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys. The archipelago's coral reefs are the least disturbed of the Florida Keys reefs. The park is noted for abundant sea life, tropical bird breeding grounds, colorful coral reefs, and legends of shipwrecks and sunken treasures. The park's centerpiece is Fort Jefferson, a massive but unfinished coastal fortress. Fort Jefferson is the largest brick masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere, and is composed of more than 16 million bricks. Among United States forts it is exceeded in size only by Fort Monroe, Virginia, and Fort Adams, Rhode Island. Dry Tortugas is unique in its combination of a largely undisturbed tropical ecosystem with significant historic artifacts. The park is accessible only by seaplane or boat and has averaged about 63,000 visitors annually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
