Organic Growth and Sedimentation on an Atoll

Abstract

An atoll is a composite reef made up of a number of distinctive reef types-windward reefs, leeward reefs, and lagoon reefs. Most of these are zoned relative to prevailing winds and currents. Organic growth, erosion, and deposition of sediment influence each of these zones, but in each the balance of forces operating at the present time may be roughly appraised. Some reef zones appear to be making headway against the sea, others appear to be essentially in a state of equilibrium, while still others are being eroded. Organic growth is the source of all the materials that make up an atoll. Some of the skeletons of the reef-building organisms remain in position of growth after death, but a much larger proportion are broken up by physical and organic agencies to form sediments that are deposited on the seaward slopes or in the lagoon. So long as organisms live on an atoll, it continues to grow, but it grows mainly by the accumulation of clastic sediments.