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Figure 15. Spurs and grooves dominate the seaward side of most Holocene reefs. They occur on outer-shelf reefs landward of the shelf margin (such as at Grecian Rocks off the upper Keys, Fig. 14) and on reefs that cap the Pleistocene shelf-margin reef. This photo shows a popular diving site at spurs on Sombrero Key Reef in the middle Keys (Fig. 6A, Tile 4). The spurs consist of skeletal Holocene Acropora palmata. Although no longer growing, they nonetheless harbor colorful hardbottom communities.

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Coastal & Marine Geology Program > Center for Coastal & Watershed Studies > Professional Paper 1751