Reefs

Reefs

1/24/2010 11:18:00 PM

Wave-resistant ridges of coral, algae, and other calcareous organisms. They form in warm, shallow sunlit water that is low in suspended sediment. Reefs stand above the surrounding sea floor, which is often covered with sediment derived from the reef.

i.

Fringing reef Flat table-like reefs attached to directly to shore. The seaward edge is marked by a steep slope leading down into deeper water. Example: o Hawaiian Islands

ii. Barrier Reef Parallel the shore but separated from it by wide, deep lagoons The lagoon has relatively quiet water because the reef shelters it by absorbing the energy of large breaking waves. Example: o Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia It extends for about 2,000 km along the coast and its seaward edge lies up to 250 km from shore. iii. Atolls Circular reefs that rim lagoons They are surrounded by deep water Small islands of calcareous sand may be built by the waves at places along the reef ring. The diameter of atolls varies from 1 to more than 100km. Example: o o Numerous dot the South Pacific Bikini and Eniwetok atolls (used through 19588 for nuclear weapons testing by USA) Atoll Formation

Charles Darwin proposed that the theses three types of reefs are related to one another by subsidence of a central volcanic island. A fringing reef initially becomes established near the islands shore. As the volcano slowly subsides because of the tectonic lowering of the sea floor , the reef becomes a barrier reef because the corals and algae grow rapidly upward , maintaining the reefs position near sea level. Less and less of the island remains above sea level, but the reefs grow upward into

shallow sunlit water, maintaining its original size and shape. Finally the volcano disappears completely below sea level, and reef becomes a circular atoll.

Drilling through atolls in the 1950s sowed that these reefs were built on deeply buried volcanic cores, thus confirming Darwins hypothesis of 120 years before. Example: Reefs on the island of Moorea in the Society Islands, south-central Pacific (Tahiti) ***Living corals appear brown

1/24/2010 11:18:00 PM

1/24/2010 11:18:00 PM