Great pic Eric, in trees when we see aerial adventitious roots emerging from the bark its a good bet that serious dysfunction is happening between the roots and the canopy..hence the attempt to reestablish a connection...assuming the same is true here..ie the section shown red arrow is not providing suffucient flow either up or down.
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Suspect in the case of palms by pools often due to lack of any realistic environment/space for the roots, or completely impoverished soils.