Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs

2011 Edition
| Editors: David Hopley

Lagoons

Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2639-2_224
How to cite
Fully or partly enclosed depressions in coral reefs are common. They range in depth from 1 or 2 m to > 90 m with the largest occurring in atolls , e.g., Kwajalein (Marshall Islands) 120 × 32 km or Rangiroa (Tuamotu) 79 × 34 km. They have many origins including the following:

  • Shallow moats behind reef flat rubble banks

  • “Boat channels” a few metres deep behind a fringing reef attached to the shore

  • Deeper lagoons behind reefal rims around volcanic islands as in the Darwinian sequence

  • Shelf reef lagoons of probable karst inheritance (Purdy, 1974) but with some Holocene growth to the rim (see Reef Classification by Hopley(1982)). These reefs and their lagoons can be > 100 km2 in area (e.g., Hopley, 2006)

  • Extensive lagoons of atolls some of which may be entirely closed off from the ocean. Purdy and Winterer (2001) have shown that only about 10 m of lagoon rim relief in these largest of lagoons (> 250 km2) is the result of reef growth, the remainder (> 20 m) is due to dissolution over...

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Earth and Environmental SciencesJames Cook UniversityTownsvilleAustralia