What is a coral atoll?
The Island That Became a Ring
What is a coral atoll?
Picture a tiny island in the middle of the ocean — not a normal island with hills and trees growing from rock, but a ring. A perfect ring of white sand and palm trees, with a shallow blue lagoon in the center, surrounded by nothing but deep ocean for hundreds of miles. That's a coral atoll, and it's one of the strangest shapes on Earth.
Here's the weird part: atolls are made by animals. Tiny animals called coral polyps — each one smaller than your pinky nail — build hard limestone skeletons around themselves. Millions of polyps, stacked over thousands of years, create a reef.
