Lansdowne Bank, sometimes called Landsdowne Bank, is an extensive

submerged bank An ocean bank, sometimes referred to as a fishing bank or simply bank, is a part of the seabed that is shallow compared to its surrounding area, such as a shoal or the top of an seamount, underwater hill. Somewhat like continental margin, conti ...

located between the main island of

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

and the

Chesterfield Islands The Chesterfield Islands (''îles Chesterfield'' in French) are a French archipelago of New Caledonia located in the Coral Sea, northwest of Grande Terre, the main island of New Caledonia. The archipelago is 120 km long and 70 km b ...

, in the easternmost part of the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down t ...

. It covers an area of ,Le parc naturel de la mer de Corail
p. 26 making it one of the largest banks of the world, has general depths of , and a largely sandy bottom. Two reefs mark the shallowest spots of the bank, but they are still submerged at low tide. Fairway Ridge, also called Fairway Plateau, is a submarine feature shown on some maps in that area. The Lansdowne Bank area marked is far larger than Fairway Plateau, but there are smaller, unnamed plateaus nearby. The Lansdowne Bank area, shown at the northeastern end of Lord Howe Rise, is separated from New Caledonia by the northern

New Caledonia Trough The New Caledonia Trough is an ocean floor feature that extends from the north of the island of Grande Terre (New Caledonia), Grande Terre of New Caledonia, to the coast off the Taranaki region of the North Island of New Zealand. Its southern por ...

Nereus Reef

Nereus Reef is at the northern end of Lansdowne Bank. Its given position of is doubtful. Nereus Reef has the least depth of the bank, with . A shoal with a depth of is west-northwest of Nereus Reef.

Fairway Reef

The southeastern end of Lansdowne Bank is marked by Fairway Reef, thus named from its lying in the fairway between

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

, midway between the Bellona Reefs (south of the Chesterfield Islands) and New Caledonia. Fairway Reef is long, about 4 to 5

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an international standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally accepted non-SI unit. H ...

s (7.3 to 9.1 metres) deep, of

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

bottom, and located at . According to some sources, Fairway Reef dries at low tide.

Sandy Island Mystery

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

and other internet maps showed a large landmass named Sandy Island in northern Lansdowne Bank, but did not show an image for it. The non-existence of this

phantom island A phantom island is a purported island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigati ...

had been proved by French missions in the 1970s, and the information passed to hydrographic services around the world, but it had remained in the World Vector Shoreline Database. In 2012 Australian scientists again proved the island does not exist.

References

External links

*
Geology
*{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101223043232/http://www.oceandots.com/pacific/coralsea/fairway.php , date=December 23, 2010 , title=Fairway Reef
Part of Nautical Chart n° 6670
Landforms of New Caledonia Coral reefs Undersea banks of the Pacific Ocean

Nereus Reef

Fairway Reef

Sandy Island Mystery

See also

References

External links