19/07/2009
An Unspoiled Horizon. The Sandbank of Baros; Your Own Exclusive Piece of Maldives
The most widely accepted theory regarding sandbank formation is the Theory of Subsidence from Charles Darwin (1842). Darwin theorised that coral atolls start life as fringing reefs growing around extant oceanic volcanoes. Over millions of years the volcanoes subside creating a lagoon between the reef and the land creating first barrier reefs, then as the volcanoes completely submerge, coral atolls. The theory states that islands are formed on the reefs as the tides and currents bring dead coral and rubble onto sandbars. These are then eventually colonized by plants.
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