What is a coral reef? Detailed answer

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What is a coral reef? Detailed answer

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What is a coral reef?

Let's first find out what a coral is. A piece of coral is the compressed skeletons of tiny marine animals called "coral polyps". The polyp's skeleton grows on the outside of its body. It is shaped like a bowl, serves to support and protect the body of the polyp and grows with the body. When a polyp dies, its skeleton remains. Coral reefs and islands are built from billions and billions of these tiny skeletons. The coral colony consists of live corals. Each of them is attached to the base - to the rock, for example, or the skeletons of earlier generations of corals.

Coral colonies can be found in all seas, but the corals that make up reefs only live in warm, clear, shallow waters. A depth of about 45 meters is the best for them, although in some areas of the world coral reefs rise from the vast ocean depths. The mystery of how coral reefs form was solved by the famous naturalist Charles Darwin. Darwin knew that the earth's surface is changing. In some places mountains rise, in others the earth's crust sinks. When he studied coral reefs, he noticed that they can be divided into three types: fringing reefs, barrier reefs and atolls (that is, coral rings).

Summarizing all this information, he proposed the following theory. A volcanic island is formed where an underwater volcano rises above the surface of the water. In the shallow waters around the island, corals form a fringing reef. Over time, the volcano calms down, cools down and begins to sink into the sea. As a result, the fringing reef is separated from the island by a wide channel of water and, gradually growing, turns into a barrier reef.

If the volcano submerges completely and disappears, only a coral reef remains on the surface. Now it is called an atoll, or ring of corals surrounding the lagoon. In addition, today we know that the coasts of the island can flood and rise in the same way that the level of the ocean can rise and fall. All of these changes help explain the causes of coral reefs.

Author: Likum A.

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