| Old Bank Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Messinian | |
| Type | Formation |
| Sub-units | Fish Hole Member |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Limestone |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 9°18′N82°06′W / 9.3°N 82.1°W |
| Approximate paleocoordinates | 9°06′N81°12′W / 9.1°N 81.2°W |
| Region | Bocas del Toro |
| Country |  Panama |
  Old Bank Formation (Panama) | |
The Old Bank Formation is a geologic formation in Bocas del Toro Province, Panama. It preserves coral fossils dating back to the Messinian period. [1]
Panama is a country located in Caribbean, bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, between Colombia and Costa Rica. Panama is located on the narrow and low Isthmus of Panama.
An atoll is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most of the approximately 440 atolls in the world are in the Pacific Ocean.
Bocas del Toro, also known colloquially as Bocas Town, is the capital of the Panamanian province of Bocas del Toro and the district of Bocas del Toro. It is a town and a tourist resort located on the southern tip of Colón Island in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. Bocas Town had 12,996 residents in 2008.
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is located in Panama and is the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States. It is dedicated to understanding the past, present, and future of tropical ecosystems and their relevance to human welfare. STRI grew out of a small field station established in 1923 on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal Zone to become one of the world's leading tropical research organizations. STRI's facilities provide for long-term ecological studies in the tropics and are used by some 1,200 visiting scientists from academic and research institutions around the world every year.
Orbicella annularis, commonly known as the Boulder star coral, is a species of coral that lives in the western Atlantic Ocean and is the most thoroughly studied and most abundant species of reef-building coral in the Caribbean to date. It also has a comprehensive fossil record within the Caribbean. This species complex has long been considered a generalist that exists at depths between 0 and 80 meters that grew into varying colony shapes in response to differing light conditions. Only recently with the help of molecular techniques has O. annularis been shown to be a complex of at least three separate species. Those species are divided into O. annularis, O. faveolata, and O. franksi. This coral was originally described as Montastraea annularis.
Bastimentos Island is an island with eponymous town, and corregimiento located in the Bocas del Toro District and archipelago of Bocas del Toro Province, Panama. The island is about 62 square kilometres (24 sq mi), one of the largest in Panama. Bastimentos had a population of 1,954 as of 2010, giving it a population density of 31.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (81/sq mi). Its population as of 1990 was 988; its population as of 2000 was 1,344.
Bocas del Toro is a district (distrito) of Bocas del Toro Province in Panama. The population according to the 2012 census was 16,815; the latest official estimate is 21,396. The district covers a total area of 433.2 km². The capital lies at the town of Bocas del Toro. Major industries include tourism and agriculture.
Archaeology of Bocas del Toro, Panama: The province of Bocas del Toro in Panama has a rich history, beginning with the first European visitors: Christopher Columbus and his son Fernando in 1502 on Columbus’ fourth voyage to the New World. The area was visited frequently from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century by privateers and buccaneers marauding Spanish colonial towns and the ships carrying gold to Europe. However little is known of the inhabitants of the region before the time of European contact. Archaeological research conducted since the middle of the 20th century has begun to illuminate the cultural history as well as development of societies in the region prior to Columbus arriving.
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Nancy Knowlton is a coral reef biologist and a former Sant Chair for Marine Science at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
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Lytechinus williamsi, the jewel urchin, is a sea urchin in the family Toxopneustidae. It occurs on shallow reefs off the coasts of Panama, Belize, the Florida Keys and Jamaica.
The Isla Colón Formation is an Early Pleistocene geologic formation in the Bocas del Toro Province of northwestern Panama. It preserves coral fossils. The formation, part of the Bocas del Toro Group, comprises limestones and sandstones deposited in a reefal environment.
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Chiriquí Lagoon is a large lagoon on the northwest coast of Panama covering an area of about 900 square kilometres (350 sq mi). It is separated from the Caribbean Sea by the Valiente Peninsula to the east and from Almirante Bay by islands in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago to the northwest, including Cayo Agua and Isla Popa. The widest and deepest entrance into the bay is the Canal del Tigre in the northeast, which is the main access channel for ships entering the lagoon.
The geology of Anguilla consists of Lesser Antilles island arc volcanic rocks overlain by Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene reef limestone. Older tuff and basalt outcrops in only two places on the island, which are tilted. During the Pliocene and Pleistocene, the underlying Anguilla Bank likely connected Saint Bartholomew and Saint Martin as one island.
The Bocas del Toro-San Bastimentos Island-San Blas mangroves ecoregion covers the mangrove habitats along the Caribbean Sea coast of Costa Rica and across the northern coast of Panama. An offshore reef and barrier islands of the region help protect the mangroves from destructive waves. The ecoregion has a high number of endangered and threatened species, including the loggerhead sea turtle, green sea turtle, and hawk's bill sea turtle.