Rosalind Bank, also called Rosalinda or Rosa Linda Bank (), is a large, completely

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 ...

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most ...

in the western

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. It is the culmination of an area 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 ...

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

, some long, that extends eastward from

Cabo Gracias a Dios Cabo Gracias a Dios is a cape located in the middle of the east coast of Central America, within what is variously called the Mosquito Coast and La Mosquitia. It is the point where the Rio Coco flows into the Caribbean, and is the border betwe ...

. The bank area is part of an extensive structure, known as Nicaragua Rise, that continues further east through Pedro Bank towards

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Geography

Rosalind is long in a north–south direction and wide, as defined by the

isobath A bathymetric chart is a type of isarithmic map that depicts the submerged bathymetry and physiographic features of ocean and sea bottoms. Their primary purpose is to provide detailed depth contours of ocean topography as well as provide the si ...

, which corresponds to an area of roughly . General depths range from , an almost immediate transition from the depth of surrounding waters. The bottom is of coarse sand and

. Several patches of depths from lie on a long coral ledge located within the southeast edge of the bank. A detached patch lies near the southwest edge of the bank, west of the southern end of this ledge. A depth of lies close to the northern edge of the bank. An extensive bank long and wide, with an area of , lies west of Rosalind Bank. Depths over this bank range from . The shallowest detached patches are found along the eastern edge of the bank. A detached patch lies on the northern part of the bank. further west lies Thunder Knoll. southeast of Rosalind Bank is

Serranilla Bank Serranilla Bank ( and ''Placer de la Serranilla'') is a partially submerged reef, with small uninhabited islets, in the western Caribbean Sea. It is situated about northeast of Punta Gorda, Nicaragua, and roughly southwest of Jamaica. The clo ...

. The

cay A cay ( ), also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, including in the Caribbean and on the Grea ...

s on it are the closest pieces of dry land. Until a 1986 treaty between Honduras and Colombia determined the two nations' maritime boundary in the area, Colombia claimed Rosalinda Bank as part of the San Andrés archipelago, along with Serranilla Bank. Under the treaty, however, Colombia accepted a boundary that placed Rosalind within Honduras's

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

. Nicaragua objected to the 1986 maritime decision as it ignored Nicaraguan claims to the area.

References

External links

Sailing Directions, Caribbean Sea, Vol. II
* *{{cite conference , last1=Hallock , first1=Pamela , last2=Jaap , first2=Walter C. , last3=Donnelly , first3=Kelly Boomer , last4=Hine , first4=Albert C. , title=Research diving on remote shoals of the Nicaraguan Rise, Southwest Caribbean. , conference=Diving for Science ... 1990 , book-title=Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences Tenth Annual Scientific Diving Symposium , editor-last=Jaap , editor-first=Walter C. , publisher=American Academy of Underwater Science , year=1990 , url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/9559 , archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415180529/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/9559 , url-status=usurped , archive-date=April 15, 2013 , accessdate=2012-01-08 Undersea banks of the Caribbean Sea International territorial disputes of the United States Gracias a Dios Department Bay Islands Department Caribbean islands of Honduras Caribbean islands Archipelagoes of the Atlantic Ocean

Geography

See also

References

External links