Schmieder Bank

Template:Short description Schmieder Bank is a rocky undersea bank west of Point Sur, California, roughly south of Monterey, supporting an extraordinarily lush biological community, including very large individual colonies of the California hydrocoral, Stylaster californicus.Template:Sfn

The bank lies about west-southwest offshore from Point Sur. Within the 75-meter contour, the bank is roughly elliptical, with its major axis running northwest–southeast, enclosing an area of about . The surface of the bank is a surf-erosional plateau, punctuated by a series of narrow ridges (running approximately parallel to the major axis), and several extremely sharp isolated pinnacles. Minimum depths are at one location and at four or more other locations. During significant ice ages the bank emerged as an offshore island.

File:Schmieder Bank topo.jpg

The bank was first explored during 1988–1991 by divers in visits organized and led by Dr. Robert Schmieder of Cordell Expeditions. That work generated a general description of the bank that was summarized in a privately published report.Template:Sfn Because of the exceptionally rich biological community, the boundary of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was extended to include the Point Sur area. The bank is similar in many respects to Cordell Bank, lying to the northwest.Template:Sfn The bank has become a desirable, but difficult, goal for scuba divers.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Schmieder has characterized both this bank and Cordell Bank as examples of "underwater islands".Template:Sfn

During 1986, NOAA carried out a high-resolution multibeam survey of the area as part of the Exclusive Economic Zone program. Template:Sfn In 1998, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute was contracted to carry out a high-resolution (5-meter horizontal) survey of the area.Template:Sfn

Schmieder Bank was named on October 15, 1990 by the United States Board on Geographic Names.