The reef wreck

A row of stone columns standing on the sea bed beside a reef — a structure, not a rock formation.

The columns are regular, upright and evenly spaced, with the coral growing over and between them. They stand in perhaps fifteen metres of water with light coming down from the surface.

Divers are photographed above and to the side of them, and a green sea turtle passes through the frame.

Whether it is a wreck, a ruin or a deliberately sunk structure, the image does not say. What it does say is that somebody modelled an underwater point of interest rather than a flat sand bottom, which is a signal about how much of the water is meant to be explored.

How to recognise it

• Regular upright columns, evenly spaced
• Coral growing over and between them
• In roughly fifteen metres of water with surface light
• Divers and a sea turtle in the same frame

The frame it comes from

The frame is a still from the official Press pack, which carries no timecode. It is 3840 by 2160, and the subject occupies 1075 by 648 of it. Also in it: the Leonida Keys.

What we still do not know

• What the structure is
• Whether it can be entered
• Whether there is anything to find there
• How much of the sea bed is modelled like this