Where on (Google)Earth #180
I did not win Where on (Google)Earth #179 over on Ron Schott’s blog last week — but the commenter who did relinquished the privilege to host the next installment and Ron opened it up to anyone.
Ron and I thought it would be fun for Clastic Detritus to host the next one because today happens to be the three-year anniversary of Where on (Google)Earth! Way back in 2007 I started this game and it’s been really fun to see that it’s still going.
This one does not include a scale and does not include the north arrow on purpose — just to make it a bit more challenging.
image credit: GoogleEarth
If you’ve never played Wo(G)E … simply put the latitude-longitude coordinates in the comments below and then you get to host (or pick the location if you don’t have a blog) for the next one. Typically, the winner also provides a few comments about the geological feature(s) on display.
I will invoke the Schott Rule — you have to wait one hour for each Wo(G)E win you have before you can answer.
Posted: January 18th, 2010 — 7:00am Pacific Time (convert to your time zone here)
Clastic Detritus 
Just goes to show what happens to productivity when you have a government holiday…
Looks like 16.094135° N, 42.483228° E, just off the western coast of Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. From what I could find, they’re collectively called the Farasan Banks (or Farasan Banks and Farasan Archipelago). They appear to be a coral reef complex, but I’m having a bit of a hard time finding good geological info about them. Here’s a quote from the Living Oceans Foundation:
“The Farasan Banks is comprised of pinnacles that reach up from the seabed at over 1000 feet that resemble coral atolls and enclose deep water lagoons that may contain lush coral formations. Cousteau described this area in his book The Living Sea as: ‘The wildest of all the reef complexes in the Red Sea … 350 miles long and thirty miles wide …. This demented masterpiece of outcrops, shoals, foaming reefs, and other lurking ship-breakers was created by societies of minute animals that have changed the aspect of our planet far more than man has yet been able to do.’ ”
Poetic, but not particularly informative. Any oceanographic types out there who know more about the area?
Tuff Cookie wins! Put a link to #181 in this comment thread when you post it.
I also got about as far as figuring out this was a coral reef system. If anyone else has some more specific knowledge please feel free to comment here.
Here’s the next round over at Magma Cum Laude: Wo(G)E #181.