the.com/atoll
a coral ring marking where a volcano used to be, before the sea won
means A ring-shaped coral reef or chain of islets enclosing a lagoon, typically rising from the rim of a sunken or eroded volcanic island in the open ocean.
from From atolu in Dhivehi, the language of the Maldives — those low-lying islands being themselves a vast scatter of atolls. The word reached English in the 19th century, and Charles Darwin gave it scientific weight when he worked out how such rings form: a fringing reef keeps growing upward as the volcano beneath it slowly subsides, until the mountain is gone and only the circle of coral remains.
- origin
- reef grows up as island sinks beneath it
- darwin theory
- Charles Darwin nailed the formation before geology agreed
- the word
- only English word borrowed from Maldivian Dhivehi
- lagoon center
- the volcano's ghost, now open water
- fragile
- sea-level rise drowns them faster than coral builds
bikini atoll — marshall islands site of 67 us nuclear weapons tests between 1946-1958
maldives — 26 atolls in indian ocean, lowest country on earth at 1.5m average elevation
kiribati — 33 atolls spanning 3.5 million km² of pacific ocean, sinking due to climate change
bora bora — french polynesia atoll in society islands, famous lagoon tourist destination