Turks and Caicos Day 6- Last snorkel

For the last day on the island we left the students at the hotel and went snorkeling/diving. Here are the shots from our last day of snorkelling, dive photos/videos to come later!

Finally reefs that are alive!!!

Old Acropora palmata (elkhorn coral) with Dr. Carlie Kerans for scale.

Close up of the elkhorn coral

 With scale...

Little coral patches between the bigger reefs

Bubbles!

Check out the reef rubble!

Thalassa grasses stabilizing the sediment

On to the next site!

More A. palmata

Corky sea finger

 Storm rubble, a.k.a. overturned A. palmata

 Charlie with some awesome sand waves!

Intrepid field trip leaders Charlie and Steve!

Porites porites

West Caicos

Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral)

This is the biggest thicket of it I have ever seen!

It's like a forest!

Madracis auretenra (yellow pencil coral)

A huge colony!

Agaricia sp.

This colony of Madracis auretenra was the size of a minivan, if not, a school bus!

Check out how it erodes when it dies!

Anemone

This ray is trying to hide from us!

Black band disease on a coral

Turks and Caicos Day 5- West Caicos Day

Time for some Pleistocene stuff!!!

But first... mangroves and callianassa burrows!

Pleistocene dunes!

Abandoned hotels!

Boat cove.... check out the Shazam line between the facies!

West Caicos

Laura looking Boss!

What could this be?

Gorgeous Ophiomorpha burrows!

Sand dollar escape structures?

Where the coral meets the sediment.

Corals, that transition to...

Red algae (Goniolithon)

Students prepping for mapping

Diplocraterion

Burrows!

"Get mapping!"

Parting lineations on the beach

Boulder conglomerate!

Root traces!

Fossil Corals

Coral growth bands

Fossil A. palmata

A large Diploria sp. head coral!

A perfect cut through a coral branch!

Idyllic boat cove!

Kris is upside down!

Jump Greg, Jump!

Boulder conglomerate

Fossil corals on West Caicos

Fossil A. palmata with Kris for scale!

A large broken branch!

Greg doesn't like being a scale bar for the large coral heads...

Fossil finger coral (P. porites)

a massive wall of red algae!

Dropping some knowledge!

The inside of an Acropora palmata (elkhorn coral)

After our stint with the fossil reefs, we got in the water with our snorkel gear and got dragged over the crazy-steep shelf edge!
Little patches of reef...

Prepare for the drop off!