Ambergris Shoal
Dravis and Wanless (1989) describe the most striking oolitic sand-body on Caicos platform is Ambergris Shoal. This is an elongate shoal extending westward from Ambergris Cay across the platform. Irregular and micritized ooids on the more stabilized flank of the shoal grade to well-laminated ooids with little micritization near and on the active shoal crest. Surficial marine hardgrounds are present throughout this shoal and rounded clasts become abundant towards the flanks of the shoal.
Water-jet probing attempts by Dravis and Wanless (1989) encountered numerous intraclast pavements or hardgrounds in the subsurface.
Ambergris Shoal extends westward completely across the southern portion of Caicos Platform. This is interpreted to reflect east to west transport. At the west margin is a narrow, north-south trending, oolitic sand spit paralleling the platform margin, West Spit. Although the sand is moving off the platform here, onshore waves maintain an oolitic sand ridge at the margin.
The photographers of the images in the galleries ranged from Ned Frost, Ryan Phelps, Jerome Bellian, Steve Steve Bachtel, Enzo Aconcha, and Christopher Kendall, all of whom participated on a field trip by Jackson School of Geosciences from Austin Texas.
The image galleries for Ambergris Shoal linked above are in two groups:
(1) Ambergris Island
(2) Ambergris Shoal
Reference
Wanless,H.R. and Dravis, J.J., 1989, Carbonate Environments and Sequences of Caicos Platform, Field Trip Guidebook T3 74. American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC. 75 pp.