Table Reefs, a Particular Type of Coral Reefs

Tayama, Risaburô (1935). "Table Reefs, a Particular Type of Coral Reefs". Proceedings of the Imperial Academy. 11 (7): 268–270. doi:10.2183/PJAB1912.11.268.

Abstract: Observations of numerous coral reefs were made during repeated voyages among the South Sea Islands under the Japanese Mandate with the party of the Magnetic Survey of the Hydrographic Department of the Japanese Navy in 1932–1934. Building on the established classification of coral reefs into fringing reefs, barrier reefs, and atolls since the researches of Ch. Darwin, a particular type is identified that does not belong to those categories or to later special types. The islets associated with this type are described as generally flat on the surface, often encircled by a boulder rim, with lower central parts sometimes filled with phosphate deposits. These islets rise about 2 meters, rarely 5 meters, above the reef flat, and are generally round or oval in outline rather than elongated. Occurring on oceanic floors at depths of 2,000 to 4,000 meters, they show profiles resembling volcanic forms, with very steep or almost vertical slopes near sea level that rapidly become gentler toward the nearly horizontal ocean floor. The term table reefs is introduced solely to distinguish them from fringing reefs, barrier reefs, and atolls irrespective of origin, and they are noted as a type of minute coral reefs recognized by Davis. Two explanations for their genesis are set out. One, following Davis’s concept of extinguished reefs, treats table reefs as atolls in the course of transformation into extinguished reefs. The other holds that corals establish colonies on the summits of submerged volcanoes at favorable depths, ultimately building table reefs; Supply Reef in the North Marianas is cited as an illustrative example.

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QID: Q129421276
MAG: 1697588299
OpenAlex: W1697588299