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Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary

Field	Value
name	Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary
iucn_category	IV
photo	Scamp over invertebrates - Grays Reef NMS.jpg
photo_caption	Sponges in Gray's Reef NMS
map	USA Georgia#USA
relief	1
location	Georgia, USA
nearest_city	Savannah, GA
coordinates
area_km2	57
established
governing_body	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
mapframe	yes
mapframe-zoom	11
mapframe-marker	water
mapframe-wikidata	yes

| mapframe-zoom = 11 | mapframe-marker = water | mapframe-wikidata = yes Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary is one of the largest near-shore live-bottom reefs in the southeastern United States. The sanctuary, designated in January 1981, is located 19 mi off Sapelo Island, Georgia, and is part of the U.S. National Marine Sanctuary System.

Within the 22 sqmi sanctuary, there are both rocky ledges and sandy flat places. The reef's rocky sandstone outcrops, submerged beneath 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21 m) of water, can be as tall as 2 to and are highly complex. These nooks and crannies provide plenty of places for marine invertebrates to latch on to and for fish to hide in. Together these animals form a dense tapestry of living creatures that in places completely hides the rock. That gives the habitat of Gray's Reef its common name — a "live bottom".

Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Georgia have used the site to study invertebrate and vertebrate paleontology as well as the effects of erosion.

Human occupation

Although Gray's Reef is more than 19 mi beyond today's shoreline, and 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21 m) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, it was once dry land and part of the mainland of North America as recently as 8,000 years ago. Human occupation of the area dates back at least 13,250 years, and coincides with one of the most dramatic periods of climate change in recent earth history, toward the end of the Ice Ages in the Late Pleistocene epoch. Sea levels were more than 200 feet lower than present levels, and the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico shorelines were 100 mi to seaward of their present locations. A 2003 research project undertaken by University of Georgia researchers Ervan G. Garrison, Sherri L. Littman, and Megan Mitchell, reported on Gray's Reef fossils and artifacts, including artifacts from a period of occupation by Clovis culture and Paleoindian hunters dating back more than 10,000 years.

References

42 FR 7942. Retrieved from https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1981-01-26/pdf/FR-1981-01-26.pdf
(2009). "Underwater Paleontology: Recovery of a Prehistoric Whale Mandible Offshore Georgia". In: Pollock NW, ed. Diving for Science 2009. Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences 28th Symposium. Dauphin Island, AL..
Thomas Thurman. "The arrival of humans in Georgia". GeorgiaFossils.com.
David G. Anderson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. (June 8, 2017). "Paleoindian Period: Overview". New Georgia Encyclopedia (University System of Georgia).

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

protected-areas-of-mcintosh-county,-georgia national-marine-sanctuaries-of-the-united-states protected-areas-of-georgia-(u.s.-state) protected-areas-established-in-1981

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