Roatan reef question

[pepperbelly]

A couple of years ago I went on a Carnival cruise and went diving at Roatan. The dive op was AKR. The dive boat left their dock and traveled west for about 5 minutes then tied to a mooring ball. When we started the dive we went west from the boat.
The reef there was sort of a finger reef- channels running north and south between walls of reef.
I went down into one of the "valleys" and saw something I thought was unusual- to me at least. The bottom of the "valley" was covered with small round-ish rocks. It almost looked like a road. None of the other "valleys" had the rocks- they had a sand bottom.

What are those rocks? Why is the bottom there lined with them. It seems like I remember them being wall to wall, like a road through the reef.

 

[Doc]

Pre-historic ancient sunken Mayan plaza?

Pirate bowling alleys?

It's a big ocean out there!

 

[KathyV]

A couple of years ago I went on a Carnival cruise and went diving at Roatan. The dive op was AKR. The dive boat left their dock and traveled west for about 5 minutes then tied to a mooring ball. When we started the dive we went west from the boat.
The reef there was sort of a finger reef- channels running north and south between walls of reef.
I went down into one of the "valleys" and saw something I thought was unusual- to me at least. The bottom of the "valley" was covered with small round-ish rocks. It almost looked like a road. None of the other "valleys" had the rocks- they had a sand bottom. What are those rocks? Why is the bottom there lined with them. It seems like I remember them being wall to wall, like a road through the reef.

I never saw that formation during trips to Roatan, but perhaps someone that regularly dives at AKR will have the information, sorry.

I have dived the Bimini Road in the Bahamas, which is theorized as being a long-lost, man-made structure, perhaps even remnants of the lost city of Atlantis! But I thought it was just a bunch of kind of square rocks.

Bimini Road - Wikipedia

 

[beluga2]

That site is most likely Canyon Reef. One of the "valleys" was an old river bed before the ocean covered the area.

 

[pepperbelly]

These rocks are more the size of grapefruit or coconuts. They didn't seem to be loose, they almost seemed to be packed and the "path" was fairly level.
My first impression was a road or walking path when the water level was much lower. My second thought was ballast stones- treasure ship!

That trip was my first in the ocean, and I was blown away and darting all over trying to see everything, so I am sure I either missed some helpful details or these formations are normal.

 

[pepperbelly]

That site is most likely Canyon Reef. One of the "valleys" was an old river bed before the ocean covered the area.

Thanks. That makes sense. It did resemble a riverbed.