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What is the difference between an island and an atoll?
Linnie Rosenbaum
An atoll is formed from an island, but it isn't entirely an island. It's a coral reef that makes the different. The reef grows in a ring around the island and the island erodes, until little if any of it is above the surface of the water and the coral reef remains.
Islands are any small body of land surrounded by water. Islands in the middle of the ocean are usually volcanic and islands in lakes and near continents are usually just areas of the continental shelf surrounding the continent with a higher elevation.
To actually answer your question, the KEY difference is the reef.
Devin Kling
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoThey are both related to volcanic activity. In the case of the Hawaiian island chain this is caused by a mantle hotspot leading to significant volcanism creating the volcanoes that form the island chain. In the case of an atoll these form around older extinct oceanic volcanoes which are subsiding. The coral forms in a fringing ring in the shallows around the volcano and as it continues to subside, the coral continues to grow upwards until eventually the volcano subsides or is eroded to a depth below the surface leaving the ring of coral with a shallow lagoon in the centre known as an atoll.
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A reef that surrounds a volcanic island is what?
atoll
How big is wake island?
Wake island is only 4. 063 square miles. It is halfway between Midway island and Guam. It is an atoll consisting of the three islets: WIlkos, Peale, and Wake.
Give you an example of an atoll?
An atoll is formed first as a reef that fringes a volcanic island. As the island sinks (after the volcanic activity has ceased and the crust has cooled, becoming denser), the reef continues to build upward, eventually ending up as a ring-shaped structure.
What island is build from coral that forms on the flank of sinking volcano?
This is known as an atoll.
Where is Laysan Island?
Laysan Island is a tiny Hawaiian atoll. It is northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands. Laysan is part of a protected wildlife sanctuary, and no animals live there.
What are some examples of atoll island?
bikini atoll
What is an island around a lagoon?
atoll
Ring shaped island?
ATOLL
Where would a atoll be located?
An atoll is an island of coral that partially or completely surrounds a lagoon.
What is a ring shape coral islands surrounding a lagoon?
A coral atoll.
What is the main Island of Kure Atoll?
It is called Green Island.
What is yaren's atoll?
An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. Yaren, is a district and constituency of the Pacific nation of Nauru. It is the capital of Nauru. Yaren does not have an atoll, but instead is a part of an island in Micronesia.
A reef that surrounds a volcanic island is what?
atoll
Polynesia site of nuclear testing by what country?
Bikini atoll, USEniwetok atoll, USChristmas Island, UK
Is Midway Island an atoll?
Midway Atoll consist of three Islands, Sand, Eastern and Spit Islands.
What is an atoll and where is it found?
An atoll is an island made of coral that circles a lagoon fully or partially. They are found in the eastern hemisphere.
What do you call a ring or a partial ring of coral that forms an island?
This is called a coral atoll.
