For those individuals who admire exotic lands, coral reefs are the landscape of their dreams, because when they watch or thing of coral reefs they start dreaming of sunny beaches with crystal clear waters.
Corals mostly live in the hot seas, usually in the latitudes of 30 degrees north and south of the Equator where water temperature is between 18 and 30° C. Coral reefs are constructed of the skeletons of tiny organisms that are called polyps. Polyps are microscopic organisms which grow at a slow pace over the years, and that develops coral reefs.
It is estimated that coral reefs cover about 0.2 percent of the area of oceans, and they are the home of a large number of marine species. For those countries that have coral reefs on their territory, like Japan, Egypt and Australia, they are a major tourist attraction.
Coral reefs fall in several classifications, but the most popular classification divides them in four groups: fringing reefs, platform reefs, barrier reefs and atolls.
Fringing coral reefs occur in shallow waters near the shore; these types of coral reefs can be separated form the shore by a narrow strip of water, but platform coral reefs are pretty far away from shore. Platform coral reefs are flat just like a platform, hence their name.
Barrier coral reefs are formed parallel to the coastline and are separated form it by a lagoon. These types of coral reefs are oftentimes very big like the Great Barrier Reed in Australia which is over 2,300 kilometers long and its surface covers over 200,000 square kilometers.
The last type of coral reefs is the atolls. Atolls are circular in form and encircle an island. Normally atolls have a lagoon in the middle. Atolls are deep sea atolls if they rise from the ocean and continental atolls when they are found on the continental shelf.
