A ring-shaped coral reef, island or series of islets enclosing a central lagoon, formed as a fringing reef around a volcanic island continues growing upward while the island itself gradually subsides and erodes away entirely beneath the sea surface. Atolls are especially widespread across the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, where the process was first fully explained by Charles Darwin.
Connections
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Earth and Environment Atlas: Atoll, the same subject.
Sources
Atoll (Wikipedia)
Shaped By: Volcanism, LeadQuote, Shaped By: Volcanism, Lead
According to Charles Darwin's subsidence model, the formation of an atoll is explained by the sinking of a volcanic island around which a coral fringing reef has formed.
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