Images related to Seeing the Reef for the Corals

Palau’s Reefs
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Palau’s Reefs

The island nation has more coral reef than land.

Published Dec 15, 2012

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Fringing Reef, Mayotte
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Fringing Reef, Mayotte

Published Mar 14, 2001

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Fringing Coral Reef, Red Sea
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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.

Published Mar 14, 2005

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Exploring Reefs from Space
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Exploring Reefs from Space

An image of Fiji’s coast shows how modern satellites can help study underwater corals even in the most remote regions.

Published Jul 4, 2015

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Coral Reefs
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Coral Reefs

Published Oct 25, 2000

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Chetumal Bay Coral Reef
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Chetumal Bay Coral Reef

Chetumal Bay lies on the Border between Mexico and Belize. To the east of the bay, Ambergris Cay connects the Belize Barrier Reef to the Yucatan Peninsula. The north of the island is Bacalar Chico Marine Reserve. Here, the barrier reef comes very close to the east side of the island. In 1998, reefs in Belize were hit by two major events that led to heavy coral mortality: El Niño-related coral bleaching and Hurricane Mitch.

Published Oct 28, 2001

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Great Barrier Reef near Whitsunday Islands
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Great Barrier Reef near Whitsunday Islands

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system on Earth, with more than 3,000 separate reefs and coral cays. It is also one of the most complex natural ecosystems.

Published May 31, 2016

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Stress on the Great Barrier Reef
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Stress on the Great Barrier Reef

In February 2017, the Great Barrier Reef continued to be exposed to warm ocean water—the main stressor on this coral system and the reason for its bleaching.

Published Mar 16, 2017

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Coral Atolls
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Coral Atolls

Published May 1, 2001

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Cabarete Bay, Dominican Republic
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Cabarete Bay, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. The island has a variety of ecosystems ranging from arid plains to tropical rain forests created by three roughly parallel east-west mountain ranges. The northernmost of these ranges, the Cordillera Septentrional, is visible in this astronaut photograph as the dark green region north of the river. Clearcut regions within the Cordillera Septentrional are visible as irregular light green regions interspersed with dark green forested areas.

Published Aug 9, 2004

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