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Caribbean History
Caribbean Area
Economy
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The Limestone Island of Anegada
That the shallower parts of the lagoon floor were somewhat planed down by low-level abrasion in the production of the present bank seems to be especially true in the eastern part of the bank, where the limestone island of Anegada now stands. This island, nine by two miles, 30 feet high, was described long ago by Schomburgk as consisting of coral limestone; his map shows 53 wrecks on its shore. It cannot be of Postglacial origin; the accumulation of its strata must antedate at least the later Glacial epochs, and its uplift--presumably in much larger area than that of the present island--probably antedated the last Glacial epoch, because the low-level abrasion that was operative during that epoch furnishes the best means of cutting away part of the uplifted limestone area and reducing it to the present island. The surrounding submarine bank is therefore to be regarded thereabouts as a bank of second generation. It has a width of two or three miles east of the island.
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