What name is given to a ring shaped reef, enclosing a lagoon?
Coral reef to form fringing reefs, and can eventually grow become a barrier reef. Where the bottom is rising, fringing reefs can grow around the coast, but coral raised above sea level dies. If the land subsides slowly, the fringing reefs keep pace by growing upwards on a base of older, dead coral, forming a barrier reef enclosing a lagoon between the reef and the land. A barrier reef can encircle an island, and once the island sinks below sea level a roughly circular atoll of growing coral continues to keep up with the sea level, forming a central lagoon. Barrier reefs
Cato Reef island. The island is almost entirely surrounded by reefs: there are three narrow boat passages through the reefs on the northern side. The best entrance is the center one, located 350 meters north of the eastern end of Cato Island; it has a conspicuous rock at half tide on its eastern side. The island lies on the western end of an oval-shaped reef enclosing a lagoon. The lagoon contains numerous coral heads. The sea breaks over the reef in all weather. The reef lies on Cato Bank, which falls away steeply on all sides. Hutchison Rock , with a depth