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coral reef |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Acronyms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.06 sec. |
coral reefRidge or hummock formed in shallow ocean areas from the external skeletons of corals. The skeleton consists of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), or limestone. A coral reef may grow into a permanent coral island, or it may take one of four principal forms. Fringing reefs consist of a flat reef area around a nonreef island. Barrier reefs may lie a mile or more offshore, separated from the landmass by a lagoon or channel. Atolls are circular reefs without a central landmass. Patch reefs have irregular tablelike or pinnacle features. Smaller patches occur inside atoll lagoons; larger patches occur as isolated parts of any of the other three reef categories, and they sometimes occur completely separate from other kinds of reefs. coral reef [′kär·əl ‚rēf] (geology) A ridge or mass of limestone built up of detrital material deposited around a framework of skeletal remains of mollusks, colonial coral, and massive calcareous algae. How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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| He may even now--if I may use the phrase--be wandering on some plesiosaurus-haunted Oolitic coral reef, or beside the lonely saline lakes of the Triassic Age. is raised, and some long mistake, some complicated edifice of self-delusion, over- confidence, and wrong reasoning is brought down in a fatal shock, and the heart-searing experience of your ship's keel scraping and scrunching over, say, a coral reef. He has no idea, poor wretch, of the spiritual destitution of a coral reef in the Pacific or what it costs to look up the precious souls among the coco-nuts and bread-fruit. |
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