Post from Coral list - Uplifted reefs

[mkirda]

I haven't seen this anywhere else.
Figured some of you might be interested.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

"There has been much discussion on the coral-list about tsunami effects on coral reefs in Indonesia but how many know of the extensive reef areas around Sumatra that were uplifted (100 percent mortality)
as much as 2.5 meters by the more recent earthquake? To see a portion of the uplifted reefs, recently surveyed by USGS geologists, see the satellite images at, http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsro ... g_id=16892
Gene Shinn"

 

[sdcfish]

Mike,

I saw some raw video tape at a Reefcheck board meeting a while ago that was shot from Craig Shuman. He made a mad dash over there to check it all out and it's very amazing how the ocean floor has been lifted above sea level exposing all the shallow reefs near the shoreline for as far as you could see from the tape. I am not sure how many miles of reef have been lost, but I am sure studies will be published soon...stay tuned on the reefcheck.org website.

Best regards,

Eric