Friday, March 13, 2015

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!

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Turks and Caicos Day 4- Ooid Shoal Day

Ooid Shoal Day! Enter the washing machine!

We started out on a tidal channel levée.


Lots of neat organisms there!
a starfish and Goniolithon red algae

A Holothurian

Some nice carbonate grains!

 Crispy Crusts

Limpets


And then we drove down to Little Ambergris Island.... Where the beautiful ooids are forming and cementing! It is very idyllic!

Ooid Beach!



And some friends

Discussing island formation

Flying the Drone

Old microbial mats that have dried up in a bubbly texture

Flat topped ripples

Getting a core of the mats and overbank oolites

OK Recovery


Mats and the random overwash conches


Beautiful mats that I know all my geobiology friends would love!




To The OOID FACTORY!!!!

The energy here is so high it is hard to get a good video!

Big beautiful ooids!

And a sea biscuit...




Pro drone landing skills courtesy of Kris and Nick!




Tomorrow the fossil reef!