What happens to the underwater world when the hurricane passes over it?

[yukoneer]

What happens to the underwater world when the hurricane passes over it?

for example, sunken ships, underwater decorations such as sculptures, etc... what happens to them when a hurricane goes over it?

 

[FSUgly]

Sometimes nothing, and sometimes they are moved miles away.

 

[Scubaguy62]

That depends on how strong is the hurricane. When Andrew hit So. Fla. in '92 (Andrew was a very strong Category 5 hurricane, with sustained winds in excess of 170 mph and gusts over 200 mph), it made landfall south of Miami, in Homestead. However, it affected a wreck south of Fort Lauderdale, the Tenneco Towers (a wreck comprised of three off-shore oil rig towers), making one tower crash into the other, and dragging one out to sea, never to be found again. So what was once a three tower wreck is now a 2 tower wreck. Check out this link
http://www.parrotislandscuba.com/tenneco.html

If Charley had hit on the east coast, being a category 4 hurricane, it could have done some damage, only perhaps not to such an extent.

 

[Wendy]

I know of a few wrecks that have ben split in half, moved, flipped etc by hurricanes. I image its just as bad down there as it is up here.

 

[Diver Lori]

Isn't that how the MV Keith Tibbets got split in half?

 

[SmokeAire]

What happens to the underwater world when the hurricane passes over it?

for example, sunken ships, underwater decorations such as sculptures, etc... what happens to them when a hurricane goes over it?

From A Bonaire website at the time: 1999
"While the closest Lenny got to Bonaire was about 150 miles, it was enough for Bonaire to feel his impact. In fact, it could be said that Bonaire received advanced notice of Lenny's arrival, in the form of major wave action on the normally calm western side of the island. The wave action started in the morning hours just after dawn, and continued increasing in intensity the rest of the day, with large waves still pounding the coast even now (at 8pm AST). "

SNIP

"One question we've received from several of our readers pertains to what the impact is of these waves on the reefs of Bonaire? The answer at present is that we don't know yet. Certainly there's a lot of sediment that has washed out over the shallow areas, and in Hato, we've seen quite a bit of damage to the really shallow corals (i.e. 10 ft./3 meter deep water), such as elkhorn coral stands which have become part of the rubble on our beach. But, until such time as the surge subsides back to normal levels, we won't be able to gauge what damage there is."

Snip

"The Bonaire Marine Park issued the following statement yesterday in the aftermath of the wave system which damaged some properties on the island
"Whilst the damage to the near shore environment has been extensive, we are confident it will not impact unduly on our tourism industry. Reefs have evolved to withstand storms much greater than the one we experienced this week and we are confident that within a month or two, our visitors will not even notice storm damage. There's abundant evidence that healthy reefs recover well from storm damage, boat groundings, etc. However, this storm should send a clear message that the crucial thing for us now is sea water quality. We need to minimize the amount of unnatural sediment and nutrients that end up in our waters. We need to modify our coastal zone construction practices, improve our waste treatment, and not modify the shoreline unduly, for example, by not allowing the creation of artificial beaches or landscaping within the coastal zone. There will be a more thorough damage assessment in the next couple of days." Kalli De Meyer, Marine Park Manager"

Me writing.

Having been there in 2000,and having seen pictures of the Elk and Staghorn coral rising almost to the surface before the waves of Lenny, and now just rubble, I would think a hurricane would be a major (but natural) influence to the under sea world.

 

[KeyLargoBrent]

What happens to the underwater world when the hurricane passes over it?

for example, sunken ships, underwater decorations such as sculptures, etc... what happens to them when a hurricane goes over it?

In 1998, Hurricane Georges broke the Eagle Wreck (a 287' steel freighter) into two pieces. The wreck still lies on her starboard side in 110-120' of water... talk about storm surge!

 

[MB]

Given the power of even a modest hurricane to break up wrecks at depth, just consider the shape that the walls of your pool will be if you toss the patio furniture in!

 

[Damselfish]

Given the power of even a modest hurricane to break up wrecks at depth, just consider the shape that the walls of your pool will be if you toss the patio furniture in!

In the ocean a lot of water can be moved and piled up over a large distance, the forces are much greater than a pool.

 

[Mako Mark]

A hurricane to a coral reef is kind of like a forest fire to a forest. In some ways, it is a good thing and the reef, like a forest is not only designed to cope with it, it is a fundimental part of its ecology.

Storms can be categorised into frequency, such as a ten year storm, or a fifty year storm. in the shallows that are hit by small storms regularly, corals are small, rapid growing, and use the strategy that they use the ecological niche when the going is good, and when a storm comes, break, and start over.

deeper down, you see elkhorn corals, rather than staghorn corals, these use the same strategy, but the storm that breaks them comes far less frequently, so they can and do grow bigger.

In the lagoon areas, you have brain corals which are the slowest growing and bulkiest of corals, they use the strategy that when the hurricane comes, they roll around like a football, and then just start growing again when and where they stop.

hurricanes can clean up and weed out the weak links on the reef. Generally after a big storm, you find a healthy newly growing reef, that has less species than a reef that has not suffered a hit lately. As the years pass, the reef sees a diversification of species and greater use of specialised niches.

Like I said, hurricanes, like forest fires can be good. What is BAD for a coral reef is an impact that is a high frequency low level stress. Good examples of this are diver damage, water chemistry change due to runoff of agricultural chemicals and of increased sediment due to land use change such as farming, urban development and logging.

as far as a hurricanes impact on shipwrecks.......... WHO CARES....... any ship that is sitting at the bottom of the ocean is already broken. It is not like it can get MORE SUNK...