atoll

Ring-shaped coral reef, generally formed over a former oceanic volcano, frequently with small emerging islands (motus) over the rim, often enclosing a central lagoon possibly still containing one or a few emerging elevated islands

EntityQ42523

Also known as coral atoll

Subclass of: island

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

An atoll is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical parts of the oceans and seas where corals can develop. Most of the approximately 440 atolls in the world are in the Pacific Ocean.

Overview

All data

41 statements · 17% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Has immediate cause: volcano
Discovered by: Charles Darwin
Discovered: 1842 latest date: 1842
Shape: annulus
Studied by: geomorphology
OpenStreetMap tag: biotic_reef:type=atoll
1
Sources
1.wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:biotic_reef:type
View statement on Wikidata ↗
natural=atoll
Members / parts: coral reef lagoon
coral reef

On other databases

25 identifiers linking atoll across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

17%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 6, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

Suggest a fact or correction

Links

Use this data

curl https://aidb.si/api/v1/entities/Q42523

API docs, limits & keys

Cite this page

AIDB. (2026). atoll (Q42523). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/atoll-Q42523