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Atolls

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Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definition

Atolls are annular mid-ocean reefs; the reef rim supports isolated, or near-continuous, reef islands composed of unlithified or poorly consolidated sand or gravel, and encloses a central lagoon.

Introduction

The term “atoll” is derived from a Maldivian (divehi) word, atolu. Atolls are ring-shaped reefs that occur in mid-ocean, often in linear island chains or archipelagoes. The most extensive groups of atolls occur in the Pacific Ocean but there are also numerous atolls in the central Indian Ocean (Figure 1). The reef platforms that form atolls are generally characterized by reefs that reach sea level, especially on the windward margin of the reef platform, although there is considerable variation in the extent to which the reef crest is continuous around the entire perimeter of the central lagoon. There are several hundred atolls which occur across a wide range of climatic and oceanographic conditions (Bryan, 1953), and show a wide variety of shapes (Stoddart, 1965;...

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    1. Colin D. Woodroffe
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    2. Naomi Biribo
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    1. James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

      David Hopley

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    Woodroffe, C.D., Biribo, N. (2011). Atolls. In: Hopley, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2639-2_4

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