What's in the photo? Submerged sandbanks and seagrass beds in shallow water
When was it taken? Feb. 15, 2020
The Great Bahama Bank (GBB) is a massive submerged platform stretching around 330 miles (530 kilometers) across a shallow ocean channel between Andros Island and the Exuma islands, according to Britannica. The crescent-shaped bank surrounds a darkly colored ocean drop-off known as "The Tongue of the Ocean," which plunges to depths of 6,500 feet (2,000 meters), according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
The varying water depth and seagrass concentration cause multiple hues of green and blue to shine across the sandbanks, which have been carved into smooth, folding ribbons by ocean currents over thousands of years.
The Great Bahama Bank is a crescent-shaped structure spanning around 330 miles (530 kilometers) between Andros Island and the Exuma islands. (Image credit: NASA/Landsat)
This section of the GBB was first photographed in 2001 by the Landsat 7 satellite and has often appeared on lists of the most iconic aerial images of our planet.
The sandbanks are like giant underwater dunes carved out by ocean currents.
The GBB lies atop a roughly 3-mile-thick (5 km) bed of limestone dating to the age of the dinosaurs, more than 65 million years ago. This hefty mass, made up of the remains of long-dead coral reefs, is so large that Earth's crust directly below the GBB has "sagged under the weight," according to the University of Texas at Austin's Marine Science Institute.
The Great Bahama Bank surrounds the edge of a deep sea drop-off known as the "Tongue of the Ocean," creating a striking contrast when viewed from above. (Image credit: USGS/ESA)The Bahamas has more than 3,000 islands and smaller cays and is home to several other intriguing oceanographic features, including deep tidal channels off the coast of Great Exuma Island (which once harbored famous pirate ships) and a series of aurora-like sandbanks that appear to shine along the nation's northernmost islands.
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