How are coral reefs formed?

Question

I need a simple explanation please!

Thank you :-)

Answer 1

Coral reefs --


Coral reefs (also known as sea gardens) are structures consisting of coral skeletons built upon coral skeletons. They grow in tropical seas in the photic zone, where there is mild wave action, not so strong it tears the reef apart yet strong enough to stir the water and deliver sufficient food and oxygen. Coral reefs also need nutrient-poor, clear, warm, shallow water to grow. The coral skeletons while alive house coral polyps.



Coral reefs can take a variety of forms, defined as the following;

Apron reef — short reef resembling a fringing reef, but more sloped; extending out and downward from a point or peninsular shore.
Fringing reef — reef that is directly attached to shore or borders it with an intervening shallow channel or lagoon.
Barrier reef — reef separated from a mainland or island shore by a deep lagoon; see Great Barrier Reef.
Patch reef — an isolated, often circular reef, usually within a lagoon or embayment.
Ribbon reef — long, narrow, somewhat winding reef, usually associated with an atoll lagoon.
Table reef — isolated reef, approaching an atoll type, but without a lagoon.
Atoll reef — a more or less circular or continuous barrier reef surrounding a lagoon without a central island.

Answer 2

coral reefs, limestone formations produced by living organisms, found in shallow, tropical marine waters. In most reefs, the predominant organisms are stony corals, colonial cnidarians that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate (limestone). The accumulation of skeletal material, broken and piled up by wave action, produces a massive calcareous formation that supports the living corals and a great variety of other animal and plant life. Although corals are found both in temperate and tropical waters, reefs are formed only in a zone extending at most from 30°N to 30°S of the equator; the reef-forming corals do not grow at depths of over 100 ft (30 m) or where the water temperature falls below 72°F (22°C). Corals are not the only, and in some cases not even the major, reef-forming organisms. Calcium carbonate is also deposited by coralline algae, the protozoan foraminiferans, some mollusks, echinoderms, and tube-building annelid worms. However, any reef formed by a biological community is usually called a coral reef.

Answer 3

Coral reefs can take a variety of forms, defined as the following;
* Apron reef — short reef resembling a fringing reef, but more sloped; extending out and downward from a point or peninsular shore.
* Fringing reef — reef that is directly attached to shore or borders it with an intervening shallow channel or lagoon.
* Barrier reef — reef separated from a mainland or island shore by a deep lagoon; see Great Barrier Reef.
* Patch reef — an isolated, often circular reef, usually within a lagoon or embayment.
* Ribbon reef — long, narrow, somewhat winding reef, usually associated with an atoll lagoon.
* Table reef — isolated reef, approaching an atoll type, but without a lagoon.
* Atoll reef — a more or less circular or continuous barrier reef surrounding a lagoon without a central island; see atoll.

You could get more information from the link below...

Answer 4

Simple eh? Ok, little tiny critters called coral attach themselves to rocks on the ocean floor...they eat micro scopic food, live and die. Then another coral attaches itself to the top of the skeleton of the dead coral and does the same....this is repeated billions and billions of times over many millenia. Eventually the mass grows higher and higher till it approaches sea level. As tides go in and out it acts as a break water and is sometimes exposed to sight. There, as simple as it could possibly get.

Answer 5

From sand