5/2/2023 0 Comments Atoll formation![]() Reed Bank, Spratly Islands (8866 km²), submerged, least depth 9 m.Great Chagos Bank (12642 km², land area only 4.5 km²).Lansdowne Bank, west of New Caledonia (21000 km²), submerged, least depth 3.7 m.Saya de Malha Bank, Western Indian Ocean (35000 km²) (without separate North Bank), submerged, least depth 7 m,.The largest atolls by total area (lagoon plus reef and dry land) are listed below: While there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while resembling that of an atoll, has a very different mode of formation. At this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. Bermuda is sometimes claimed as the "northernmost atoll" at a latitude of 32☂4' N. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at 24☄0' S. The southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29★8' S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29☂9' S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28☂4' N, along with other atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Reef-building corals will thrive only in warm tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas, and therefore atolls are only found in the tropics and subtropics. ![]() The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. ![]() The distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive: most of the world's atolls are in the Pacific Ocean (with concentrations in the Tuamotu Islands, Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, Coral Sea Islands, and the island groups of Kiribati, Tuvalu and Tokelau) and Indian Ocean (the Atolls of the Maldives, the Lakshadweep Islands, the Chagos Archipelago and the Outer Islands of the Seychelles). Los Roques Archipelago in Venezuela, the largest marine National Park in Latin America, from space.
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