Clay Reef

[spectrum]

Well I'll call it a clay reef for lack of a better term.

Saturday I dove with Cecilb63 at Middle Beach in Kennebunk, ME. It's a sheltered, shallow spot that's probably good for a tad over 20 feet at high tide. We were both checking out new gear so it was a good easy spot with a nice entry. The bottom is reasonably varried and I came across something interesting.

On the way out we swam over this big gray area that look like wave polished stone riddled with holes, really strange. It almost had that look of gray brain matter if you know what I mean.

On the way back we crossed it (or another) and I was curious and rubbed it with a finger, it was smooth like polished marble. The I noticed I had left a mark and had gray clay on my glove. Sitting here underwater was this huge fsab of clay that had loads of critter burrows. I can only imagine what lives there i the summer. Nobody seemed to be home right now.

Does anyone know anythng about this sort of underwater feature? Do they have a name?

Pete

 

[LobstaMan]

There are similar structures at approx the same depth just off Sandwich Town Beach(STB). I don't know the correct name, but I've always heard them called just what you called them...clay reefs.

At your dive spot in Maine, was there a tidal creek nearby? I'm curious because my half-baked theory is that these clay reefs were formed by the ancient(or just old) creek bed/sides in a salt marsh area during the last Ice Age when sea levels were lower. At some point, the creek changed course or something and the bed/sides were hardened by baking in the sun. Finally, when the seas rose from the melting and receding glacial ice, it was filled in by ocean water creating the clay reefs we see today. If you look at the current creek/salt marsh behind STB, you'll see some similar features along the sides today, although they are very muddy and not hard. I've never seen these clay reefs anywhere else.

Thanks for entertaining my amateur geologist theory.....

LobstaMan

 

[swampy]

Off of Salisbury Beach there is one that we dive. It's in about 40 feet of water. On a good day you may find a few lobsters hiding in the hole's. On those days it like grabbing your mail out of a P.O. box.

 

[spectrum]

At your dive spot in Maine, was there a tidal creek nearby?

No but it's in a sheltered space where rocks and ledges jut out to both sides and the front is 50% walled off by another ledge that is underwater at high tides. As you can imagine there are tidal current flowing as the tide rises and falls. It would not surprise me to learn that this area was once high ground that had the sandy fill scoured out. What remains is the surrounding rock material and this (or these) dense clay reef.

Pete