Millions of years ago, a single polyp growing at a mere 1.5-2cm per year began the long, tedious process of forming the entire Caribbean Barrier Reef, the second largest reef system in the world. As the Caribbean Tectonic Plate slowly grinds its way into the North American Tectonic Plate, several extensive underwater mountain chains have gradually been pushed to the surface. The Bonacca Ridge, which sits on the northwest corner of the Caribbean Plate and connects all the Bay Islands, is the combined result of plate movements along the Cayman Trench and millennia of coral growth. Roatan itself is simply an ancient coral reef that has been pushed over 270m/900ft above sea level! Roatan has a fringing reef system: the coral reef extends directly from the shoreline. As a diver or snorkeler, this means that all the best sites are mere minutes from the shore. The gnarled black ironshore formations that define our shoreline are the most recent by-products of the fringing reef being thrust above the waterline. Ironshore is a formation of consolidated coral, mollusk shells and marl with some limestone. It was formed about 120,000 years ago in the Pleistocene period.
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