How are coral reefs built?
Stone City Builders
How are coral reefs built?
Picture a city made entirely of stone, built by creatures smaller than your fingernail. That's a coral reef — the ocean's most crowded neighborhood, constructed by tiny architects called coral polyps over hundreds or thousands of years.
A coral polyp looks like a miniature sea anemone — a soft tube with a ring of waving tentacles on top. It's basically a stomach with arms. The polyp sits in a cup of limestone that it builds around itself, like living in a stone sleeping bag of its own making.
