Coral Reefs

This book is Charles Darwin's geological monograph based on his coral reef surveys during the voyage of the Beagle (1832–1836). It was first published in 1842 as The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs and is the first of his three Beagle geology books. Drawing on Lyell's Principles of Geology and making particular use of his own measurements in the Keeling (Cocos) Islands of the Indian Ocean, Darwin advanced the famous subsidence theory: as the sea floor slowly sinks, corals keep growing upward at the edges of the existing reef, successively forming fringing reefs, barrier reefs and atolls (lagoon islands). The book treats each reef type in turn: it begins with descriptions of atolls, barrier reefs and fringing reefs, then discusses the conditions of coral growth and their geographical distribution, and finally explains the origin of each reef type through the subsidence theory, with a detailed appendix of reef-island descriptions and plates. This work won Darwin the Royal Society's medal and remains a classic in the study of coral reef formation, as well as an important entry point for understanding Darwin's scientific method. This is a facsimile of the original English edition published by Tredition Classics.