Smithers, Scott G. (2009) Great Barrier Reef Islands, Geology. In: Gillespie, Rosemary G., and Clague, David A., (eds.) Encyclopedia of Islands. University of California Press, Berkeley, USA, pp. 386-388.

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Abstract

Around 1000 islands occur on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR), with the exact number varying depending on where the boundaries of the GBR are drawn and how islands are defined (e.g., when is a sand bar an unvegetated cay?). The numbers cited below are for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP). Two main island types occur: continental high islands and low reef islands. Continental high islands are continental outcrops that were separated from the mainland as rising seas flooded the continental shelf after the last ice age. The low reef islands are accumulations of reef-derived carbonate sediments deposited on reef flats formed after the mid-Holocene.

Item ID:	8028
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Reference)
ISBN:	9780520256491
Additional Information:	This publication does not have an abstract. The first paragraph of this chapter is displayed as the abstract.
Date Deposited:	29 Jan 2010 04:53
FoR Codes:	04 EARTH SCIENCES > 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience > 040601 Geomorphology and Regolith and Landscape Evolution @ 50% 04 EARTH SCIENCES > 0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience > 040699 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience not elsewhere classified @ 50%
SEO Codes:	96 ENVIRONMENT > 9605 Ecosystem Assessment and Management > 960502 Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Environments @ 100%
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