Day 2 of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, and my theme this year is Natural Phenomena.
Barrier Reef; there are three main types, the best known of which is of course the Great Barrier Reef, of the east coast of Australia. They are all made of coral, a colonial animal which secretes limestone and under suitable circumstances they grow and develop to create a framework on the borders of the flanks of islands and landmasses. The Barrier Reef forms a lagoon between itself and the landmass, which helps it to survive any acidity in water run-off from the land. Fringing reefs are closer in, and they are often damaged by the run-off. The third type is atolls, which are left behind when a volcanic island sinks back into the ocean.
Coral reefs grow at about 3 to 5 metres (10-16 feet) per 1000 years, although some Caribbean reefs have ben estimated to grow twice as fast. Just as well, since the growth in the number of cruise ships anchoring in these fragile structures rips them apart.
Oceanographers are also discovering much more about cold-water reefs, which develop under suitable circumstances in other parts of the oceans, but are not generally made of coral.
I was lucky enough to visit the Great Barrier Reef some years ago. My pictures of the underwater life aren’t good, since there had been storms in the preceding weeks, and there was a lot of debris and murkiness in the usually clear waters. It was still great to see the fish with their incredible colours nipping in and out of the coral structures though. These were taken from a glass-bottomed boat at the Hook Island Observatory, or at Townsville.
The Great Barrier Reef is now classed as a World Heritage Site. It is more than 2000 km (1200 miles) long and started to form about 25 million years ago.
Come back tomorrow, when I have to fit my Natural Phenomenon C into the Flash Fiction for Friday!
Thank you so much for your nice-and-clear explanation of Barrier Reefs. Look forward to reading again tomorrow!
Ros, visiting from GenWestUK
Nice to see you, Ros! It’s story-time tomorrow 😉
Gorgeous. I hope I can visit one day! I saw an article some months ago about retired NYC cars being tossed into the ocean to help build new habitat communities for fish and coral… cool things always happening in the world. 🙂
In controlled situations, it can work well. Just not in every waterway that a jerk can dump his trash!
Love it! That’s one of the many, many places I want to visit!
Next time you go to Peru, turn right and keep going 😉
My daughter and new son-in-law are off to see the Great Barrier Reef in September and I am so jealous! There was sea floor off the island where we lived in the Bahamas that had brain coral – the only spot in the Atlantic that does. And it was only around 50 feet down, so you could dive without a tank,
Great post, Jemima.
Thanks, Noelle!
I would LOVE to see both Australia and the GBR someday. I never knew there were cold water barrier reefs as well. Very interesting, Jemima!
They have good reefs in the Caribbean too – unless the cruise ships have been there
I love watching nature documentaries that go under water and explore reefs and sealife. It’s so amazing.
~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Member of C. Lee’s Muffin Commando Squad
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
I agree, Patricia. Jacques Cousteau was the big tv person when I was younger – he invented the scuba equipment.
Somewhere I HAVE been! Our one trip to Australia was in 2004 and we snorkelled at the Great Barrier Reef. The next day I broke two bones in my foot and ended up in plaster up to the knee, so I was glad I got to do the snorkelling first.
Well, if you must smash your foot, at least get the timing right! Hope it didn’t spoil your trip too much. I once jumped in a lake and cut my foot open – that did for swimming for the rest of the holiday – but I was 9 at the time.
We’d also done the Sydney Bridge climb which was the other thing we’d pre-booked from home so the timing was not bad! We still had a great time, though I’d like to go back to revisit without crutches.
I bet seeing it in person was magnificient! Something I would like to do some day!
betty
It was – and at first disappointing with grey weather, but then, it makes a change from wall to wall blue skies!
I’ve never done the Great Barrier Reef, but I have SCUBA dived in a few Caribbean reefs and they’re always spectacular!
Sounds wonderful, Sabina 🙂
Wonderful! Hope I can go there some day… Great theme!
Hi Jemima – I’d love to see the Great Barrier Reef one day … one day! Coral always looks amazing along with the sea life present .. cheers Hilary