The Coral-Reef Problem

Abstract

FROM time to time recent work on the topography of coral-reefs has been referred to in NATURE, and the existence of submarine platforms from which atolls and encircling reefs rise has been very generally demonstrated. Prof. R. A. Daly regards these platforms as wave-cut plains, produced from coral banks and volcanic isles when the level of oceanic waters was lowered by ice-accumulation in Glacial times. The melting of the ice caused a general submergence of the platforms and of the adjacent coasts, giving rise to drowned valleys and all the features that have been attributed to a subsidence of the ocean-floor. The existing coral-reefs are thus for him post-Glacial, and grew up on the submerged platforms when warmer conditions were renewed.