Macclesfield Bank
- Landsat 7
- Path 120 Row 049
- 01 March 2003
Macclesfield Bank, located in the central South China Sea, eastwards from the Paracel Islands proper, is an almost entirely submarine platform measuring 115 km in length with a maximum width of around 60 km. Shown above are the northeastern portions of the formation. After the massive Reed Tablemount of the Spratly Islands, the Macclesfield Bank is the second largest submarine bank of the South China Sea region.
Reminiscent of a sunken atoll, the 6400 km² bank consists of a broken reef rim — that can be up to 5 km in width and with average depths ranging from 12 to 18 m — enclosing a very deep central lagoon.
image: millennium coral reefs landsat archive/usf millennium global coral reef mapping project/nasa seawifs/nasa jsc
