Terrazas recifales en el litoral de Puerto Plata (Costa Norte, República Dominicana)

Abstract

The North Coast of Dominican Republic is a tectonically rising coast drained by short rivers, with a mean wave height of 1.5 m and microtidal tides .This coast develops an active reef flat bordering sandy beaches and other deeper reef terraces. These terraces are located 5 and 15 meters deep and are separated by high dip slopes with small chanyons bioclastic sandy aprons. The present paper characterizes the reef terraces located in front of Puerto Plata coast from a morphosedimentary point of view. The active flat displays live and dead coral reefs and wide Phanerogam prairies, whereas the deep reef terraces are mainly constituted by a calcirrudite of bioclastic coral fragments whitout living corals