aus dem MARUM und dem Fachbereich Geowissenschaften der ...

MARIA S. MERIAN-Berichte, Cruise 20, Leg 4, Bridgetown – Freeport, 15.3.2012 – 7.4.2012
least – the northern Gulf of Mexico (Brooke & Young 2009). Some low-relief mounds are
colonized by arcuate galleries of E. profunda colonies (Fig. 6.7f). It is possible that these
structures represent sedimentary drift bodies which formed leeward of larger coral mounds and
the coral took advantage of the antecedent topography to settle on their preferred elevated
positions. The slope inclination of the rhomboid-shaped coral mounds is with 35 to 45° relatively
steep (Fig. 6.8e). One coral mound flank shows exhumed carbonate crusts with irregular upper
and lower surfaces (Fig. 6.8f). All in all, the seabed facies and coral habitats resemble those from
the previous dive. The coral mounds locally show a series of furrows and coral-covered ridges
on top of the mound flanks (Fig. 6.9a).
Fig. 6.9 A View on a ridge-and-furrow system on the flanks of some coral mounds. B Perciform fish swimming
between the coral colonies. C Grazing of living corals by Gracilechinus sp. D Aphrocallistes sp. infested
by a yellow actiniarian. E Large isopod (17 cm long) on the mud plain. F Chaunax suttkusi lying on the
mud seabed.
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