| Fringing Coral Reef, Red Sea: The Sudanese coast of the Red
Sea is a well-known destination for diving due to clear water and
abundance of coral reefs (or shia’ab in Arabic). Reefs are formed
primarily from precipitation of calcium carbonate by corals. (In
addition to its commonly used meaning, precipitation can also
describe how something dissolved in a solution becomes “undissolved”
through chemical or biological processes.) Massive reef structures
are built over thousands of years of succeeding generations of coral.
In the Red Sea, fringing reefs form on shallow shelves of less than
50 meters depth along the coastline. This astronaut photograph
illustrates the intricate morphology of the reef system located along
the coast between Port Sudan to the northwest and the Tokar River
delta to the southeast. Close to shore, fringing reefs border the
coastline. Farther offshore grows a larger, more complicated barrier
reef structure. Different parts of the reef structure show up as
variable shades of light blue. Deeper water channels (darker blue)
define the boundaries for individual reefs within the greater barrier
reef system. Such a complex pattern of reefs may translate into
greater ecosystem diversity because of the wide variety of local reef
environments. |
