A reef or marine bank of rock formed by the growth and deposit of coral; ‘any connected mass of coral structures, whether trending away in long partially-submerged ledges, encircling islands like breakwater-barriers, or rising as low ring-shaped islets above the waters of the ocean’ (Page).
The reef building corals are chiefly madrepores of the genera Meandrina, Caryophyllia and Astroides.
1745. P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 151. A Coral Riff of Rocks between us and the Shore.
1832. De la Beche, Geol. Man., 151. In the Pacific, where volcanos and coral reefs are both abundant.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 742–3. Some of the Madreporaria descend to great depths…. The majority form the well-known coral reefs.
