Pacific Atolls: A World Apart

Abstract

Atolls are low islands made from biogenic detritus that are scattered across the low-latitude Pacific Ocean. Atolls mark places where reef-fringed volcanic islands were once emerging but then sank slowly allowing the reef to continue growing at the ocean surface, finally forming an atoll. Owing to their low elevation and mostly soft-sediment composition, atolls are among the most vulnerable island environments on Earth. Some may disappear during this century as a result of sea-level rise.