Arrecife Alacranes

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Arrecife Alacranes
(Scorpion Reef)
ISS image
ISS picture
Waters Gulf of Mexico
Geographical location 22 ° 31 ′  N , 89 ° 43 ′  W Coordinates: 22 ° 31 ′  N , 89 ° 43 ′  W
Arrecife Alacranes (Yucatán)
Arrecife Alacranes
Number of islands 5
Main island Isla Perez
length 27 km
width 15 km
Land area 1.048 km²
total area 325.717 km²
Highest elevation 4.3  m
Residents (Semi-permanent population: 4 families)
Map of the atoll
Map of the atoll
Lighthouse on the island of Pérez as seen
from the lagoon (east)

Arrecife Alacranes (also the singular Arrecife Alacrán is common, dt. Scorpion Reef ) is an atoll on the outer shelf of the Campeche Bank , 116 km north of the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula .

geography

Arrecife Alacranes is the largest reef and the most clearly formed atoll in the Gulf of Mexico . It extends from northwest to southeast over a length of 27 km, is up to 15 km wide, and has a total area of ​​326 km². The lagoon is a maximum of 36 meters deep.

The reef consists of five islands that are arranged along its leeward side (on the western edge), all of which have vegetation. The highest island with 4.3 m is Isla Pérez, followed by Desertora with 4 m and Desterrada with 3 m. Chica and pájaros are lower. A lighthouse was built on Isla Pérez in 1900. It is not the largest, but the only inhabited island on the reef, with four families in three residential buildings, and is therefore considered the main island. The population is "semi-permanent", the official population was zero at the 2005 census. Isla Pérez is 875 meters long and 150 meters wide. According to official information, however, it has an area of ​​18.5 hectares. From the same source, the sum of the five island areas results in a land area of ​​104.8 hectares, or just over one square kilometer. In contrast, a publication from 1962 only specifies an area of ​​a maximum of half a square kilometer. This discrepancy can be explained, at least in part, by an increase in the land area of ​​Isla Pérez and possibly other islands, although other sources also report decreasing island areas.

Islands

From north to south the atoll has the following five islands:  Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMapf1Georeferencing

No island Area
( ha )		 Coordinates
1 Desterrada (Utowana) 47.2 ! 522.5755565410.213333522 ° 34 '32.0 "  N , 089 ° 47' 12.0"  W.
2 Desertora (Allison Cay, Muertos) 25.0 ! 522.4430565410.213333522 ° 26 '35.0 "  N , 089 ° 47' 12.0"  W.
3 Perez 18.5 ! 522.3897225410.306944522 ° 23 '23.0 "  N , 089 ° 41' 35.0"  W.
4th Chica 4.9 ! 522.3797225410.337500522 ° 22 ′ 47.0 "  N , 089 ° 39 ′ 45.0"  W.
5 Pájaros (Blanca) 9.2 ! 522.3752785410.341944522 ° 22 ′ 31.0 ″  N , 089 ° 39 ′ 29.0 ″  W.
  Arrecife Alacran 104.8 ! 522.5238895410.282500522 ° 31 '26.0 "  N , 089 ° 43' 03.0"  W.

administration

The reef and its islands belong to the municipality of Progreso in the Mexican state of Yucatán .

National park

Arrecife Alacranes is a Mexican national park and has been declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO . It comprises a marine reserve with a total area of ​​3337.68 km², which includes an open sea zone with a width of around 20 to 30 km around the reef. Most of the reef is protected by a northern and southern core zone, with areas of 197.32 and 119.37 km², respectively.

The reef has a high biodiversity under water . It is considered a nursery for many fish species in the region. In the story, many ships ran aground on the shallows of the reef. The wrecks were integrated into the reef by nature and have considerable cultural value.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía: Superficie Continental e Insular del Territorio Nacional. ; The area of ​​245 km² given on Yucatan Today appears implausibly low in comparison with the satellite image.
  2. ↑ a b c d Arrecife Alacrán. On: GulfBase.org
  3. ^ National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency: Pub. 148 Sailing Directions (Enroute), Caribbean Sea, Volume II. Sector 7, Coast of Mexico — Cabo Catoche to the Rio Grande, Bethesda, Maryland 2009, p. 152. (online) (PDF; 4.7 MB)
  4. ↑ Catálogo de Localidades: Municipio de Progreso.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / cat.microrregiones.gob.mx  
  5. ↑ Arrecife Alacrán ( Memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in the island encyclopedia www.oceandots.com (English)
  6. ^ F. Raymond Fosberg: A brief study of the cays of Arrecife Alacran, a Mexican atoll. In: Atoll Research Bulletin. No. 93, December 15, 1962 (online) (PDF; 1.3 MB)
  7. ^ John W. Tunnell, Brian R. Chapman: Seabirds of the Campeche Bank Islands, Southeastern Gulf of Mexico. In: Atoll Research Bulletin. No. 482, June 2000. (online) (PDF; 2.2 MB)
  8. ↑ Artículos sobre Playas en México. On: playasmexico.com
  9. ↑ 25 nuevas reservas de biosfera se añaden a la Red del programa MAB: Arrecife Alacranes, México. On: portal.unesco.org

literature

  • F. Raymond Fosberg: A brief study of the cays of Arrecife Alacran, a Mexican atoll. In: Atoll Research Bulletin. No. 93, December 15, 1962. (online) (PDF; 1.3 MB)
  • Robert L. Folk, Augustus S. Cotera: Carbonate Sand Cays of Alacran Reef, Yucatan, Mexico: sediments. In: Atoll Research Bulletin. No. 137, February 16, 1971. (online) (PDF; 17.9 MB)

Web links