Lansdowne Bank, sometimes called
Landsdowne Bank, is an extensive submerged
bankA bank is a shoal—a comparatively shallow area or an underwater hill on the continental shelf—surrounded by deeper water. It may be of volcanic nature. Banks may be carbonate or terrigenous. As they are not associated with any landmass, banks have no outside source of sediments...
located between the main island of
New CaledoniaNew Caledonia , is a "sui generis collectivity" of France located in the region of Melanesia in the southwest Pacific. It comprises a main island , the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands...
and the
Chesterfield IslandsChesterfield Islands is an archipelago of New Caledonia located in the Coral Sea, 550 km North West of Grande Terre the main island of New Caledonia. Chesterfield Islands are a 120 km long and 70 km broad structure composed with 11 islets and many reefs...
, in the easternmost part of the
Coral SeaThe Coral Sea is a marginal sea off the north-east coast of Australia. It is bounded in the west by the east coast of Queensland, thereby including the Great Barrier Reef, in the east by Vanuatu and by New Caledonia, and in the north approximately by the southern extremity of the Solomon Islands...
. It covers an area of 21,000 km², making it one of the largest banks of the world (after Saya de Malha), has general depths of 60 to 80 meters, and a largely sandy bottom. Two reefs mark the shallowest spots of the bank, but they are still submerged at low tide.
Fairway Ridge, a submarine feature, is shown some maps in that area.
Lansdowne Bank, sometimes called
Landsdowne Bank, is an extensive submerged
bankA bank is a shoal—a comparatively shallow area or an underwater hill on the continental shelf—surrounded by deeper water. It may be of volcanic nature. Banks may be carbonate or terrigenous. As they are not associated with any landmass, banks have no outside source of sediments...
located between the main island of
New CaledoniaNew Caledonia , is a "sui generis collectivity" of France located in the region of Melanesia in the southwest Pacific. It comprises a main island , the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands...
and the
Chesterfield IslandsChesterfield Islands is an archipelago of New Caledonia located in the Coral Sea, 550 km North West of Grande Terre the main island of New Caledonia. Chesterfield Islands are a 120 km long and 70 km broad structure composed with 11 islets and many reefs...
, in the easternmost part of the
Coral SeaThe Coral Sea is a marginal sea off the north-east coast of Australia. It is bounded in the west by the east coast of Queensland, thereby including the Great Barrier Reef, in the east by Vanuatu and by New Caledonia, and in the north approximately by the southern extremity of the Solomon Islands...
. It covers an area of 21,000 km², making it one of the largest banks of the world (after Saya de Malha), has general depths of 60 to 80 meters, and a largely sandy bottom. Two reefs mark the shallowest spots of the bank, but they are still submerged at low tide.
Fairway Ridge, a submarine feature, is shown some maps in that area. Lansdowne Bank or Fairway Ridge, shown at the northeastern end of
Lord Howe RiseThe Lord Howe Rise is an underwater plateau that extends from southwest of New Caledonia to the Challenger Plateau, west of New Zealand. To its west is the Tasman Basin and to the east is the New Caledonia Basin. Lord Howe Rise has a total area of about 1,500,000 square km, and generally lies about...
, are separated from New Caledonia by New Caledonia Basin and Fairway Basin.
Nereus Reef
At the northern end of Lansdowne Bank, Nereus Reef is located. Its given position of is doubtful
http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/websites/pollux/pollux.nss.nima.mil/NAV_PUBS/SD/pub127/127sec06.pdf. Nereus Reef has the least depth of the bank, with 3.7 meters. A shoal with a depth of 16 meters is located km WNW of Nereus Reef.
Fairway Reef
The southeastern end of Lansdowne Bank is marked by Fairway Reef, thus named from its lying in the
fairwayA fairway is a part of a golf course or a cleared channel in navigation.Fairway may also refer to:-Places:United States* Fairway, KansasElsewhere* Fairway, Gauteng, South Africa...
between
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and
New CaledoniaNew Caledonia , is a "sui generis collectivity" of France located in the region of Melanesia in the southwest Pacific. It comprises a main island , the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands...
, midway between the Bellona Reefs (south of the Chesterfield Islands) and New Caledonia. Fairway Reef is 3.2 km long, about 4 to 5
fathomA fathom is a unit of length in the Imperial system , used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in a fathom...
s (7.3 to 9.1 meters) deep, of
coralCorals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone-like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals...
bottom, and located at . According to some sources, Fairway Reef dries at low tide
http://www.reefbase.org/global_database/default.aspx?section=r1®ion=22&country=NCL.
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