Colorful 'painting-like' ripples cover an ancient seafloor structure the Bahamas — Earth from space

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Click the button below to find out more information. Find out more The Great Bahama Bank consists of a series of seagrass-covered sandbanks carved into picturesque "folds" by millennia of ocean currents. (Image credit: NASA/Landsat) Copy link Facebook X Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter QUICK FACTSWhere is it?

Great Bahama Bank, Bahamas [23.547188707, -76.46352937]What's in the photo?

Submerged sandbanks and seagrass beds in shallow waterWhich satellite took the photo? Landsat 8When was it taken? Feb.

15, 2020This ethereal satellite snap shows beautiful, "painting-like" folds within an ancient underwater structure in the Bahamas.The Great Bahama Bank (GBB) is a massive submerged platform stretching around 330 miles (530 kilometers) across a shallow ocean channel between Andros Island and the Exuma islands, according to Britannica. The crescent-shaped bank surrounds a darkly colored ocean drop-off known as "The Tongue of the Ocean," which plunges to depths of 6,500 feet (2,000 meters), according to NASA's Earth Observatory.

The photographed section of the GBB is around 23 miles (37 km) across and features a series of submerged sandbanks — most of which are covered with dense seagrass beds — that lie between 7 and 40 feet (2 to 12 m) below the ocean's surface.The varying water depth and seagrass concentration cause multiple hues of green and blue to shine across the sandbanks, which have been carved into smooth, folding ribbons by ocean currents over thousands of years."The varying colors and curves remind us of graceful strokes on a painting," Earth Observatory representatives wrote.

The Great Bahama Bank is a crescent-shaped structure spanning around 330 miles (530 kilometers) between Andros Island and the Exuma islands.(Image credit: NASA/Landsat)This section of the GBB was first photographed in 2001 by the Landsat 7 satellite and has often appeared on lists of the most iconic aerial images of our planet."There are many nice seagrass and sand patterns worldwide, but none like this anywhere on Earth," Serge Andréfouet, an oceanographer at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development who first shared the 2001 image, told the Earth Observatory.

"I am not surprised it is still a favorite, especially for people who see it for the first time."Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter nowGet the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsThe sandbanks are like giant underwater dunes carved out by ocean currents."

Tides and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the sand and seaweed beds into these multicolored, fluted patterns in much the same way that winds sculpted the vast sand dunes in the Sahara Desert," Earth Observatory representatives wrote in 2001.The GBB lies atop a roughly 3-mile-thick (5 km) bed of limestone dating to the age of the dinosaurs, more than 65 million years ago. This hefty mass, made up of the remains of long-dead coral reefs, is so large that Earth's crust directly below the GBB has "sagged under the weight," according to the University of Texas at Austin's Marine Science Institute.

The Great Bahama Bank surrounds the