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{{Short description|none}} <!-- This short description is INTENTIONALLY "none" - please see WP:SDNONE before you consider changing it! -->
[[Tuvalu]] consists of nine separate islands: six [[atoll]]s and three [[reef]] islands.<ref name="SOPAC">{{cite web |title= EU-SOPAC Project Report 50: TUVALU TECHNICAL REPORT High-Resolution Bathymetric Survey Fieldwork undertaken from 19 September to 24 October 2004 |publisher= Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission c/o SOPAC Secretariat|date=October 2018 |url= ftp://ftp.gouv.nc/sig/PUBLIC/club_geomatique/2017/GT_donnees_geo_maritimes_22_06_2017/Rapport_de_leve_CPS.pdf| access-date=21 October 2019 }}</ref> An atoll typically consists of several [[
The sea level at the Funafuti tide gauge has been rising at a rate of 3.9 mm per year, and it has been determined that [[sea level rise|rising sea levels]] are causing more wave energy to be transferred across reef surfaces, which has tended to push more sand onto island shorelines, increasing islands’ land area.<ref name="PSK">{{cite journal| last = Paul S. Kench, Murray R. Ford & Susan D. Owen |title= Patterns of island change and persistence offer alternate adaptation pathways for atoll nations |journal= Nature Communications |date = 9 February 2018|volume= 9 |issue= 1 |page= 605 |doi= 10.1038/s41467-018-02954-1 |pmid= 29426825 |pmc= 5807422 }}</ref> Over a recent four-decade period, there was a net increase in the land area of the islets of 2.9% (73.5 ha), although the changes were not uniform: About 74% of them increased in size and about 27% decreased in size.
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The [[Coral reefs of Tuvalu]] consists of three [[reef]] islands and six [[atolls]], containing approximately {{convert|710|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} of reef platforms.<ref name="MM20048">{{cite report|first= |last= Morris, C., & Mackay, K. |title = Status of coral reefs in the Southwest Pacific: Fiji, Nauru, New Caledonia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu |year= 2008 |publisher= Status of coral reefs of the world (Townsville: Australian Institute of Marine Science)| volume=|pages=177–188|chapter= |issn= }}</ref> The reef islands have a different structure to the atolls, and are perhaps better described as “reef platforms,” as they are small, tabular platforms that lack the salt-water [[lagoon]] typically found on reef islands.<ref name="PSK1">{{cite journal| last = Paul S. Kench, Murray R. Ford & Susan D. Owen |title= Patterns of island change and persistence offer alternate adaptation pathways for atoll nations (Supplementary Note 1) |journal= Nature Communications |date = 9 February 2018|volume= 9 |issue= 1 |page= 605 |doi= 10.1038/s41467-018-02954-1 |pmid= 29426825 |s2cid= 256641955 |url= http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02954-1| access-date=11 February 2018|pmc= 5807422 }}</ref> The reef platforms do have a completely enclosed rim of dry land, and the rim surrounds the remnants of a lagoon, but these lagoon remnants have no connection to the open sea, and tend to dry up as coral debris accumulates in them over time.<ref name="CH-GA">{{cite journal|ref=Hedley|last1= Hedley |first1= Charles|title= General account of the Atoll of Funafuti|url= http://australianmuseum.net.au/Uploads/Journals/16686/487_complete.pdf |year= 1896 |journal= Australian Museum Memoir |volume=3|issue=2|pages=1–72 |doi= 10.3853/j.0067-1967.3.1896.487 }}</ref> For example, [[Niutao]] has two brackish, saline lakes which are the degraded remnants of an ancient lagoon.
The smallest island, [[Niulakita]], which is the ninth island in the Tuvaluan archipelago, has not been continuously inhabited. It has been privately owned since 1944, when the [[Gilbert and Ellice Islands]] Colony administration purchased the island and granted people from [[Vaitupu]] permission to settle there. However, in 1949, a successor administration made the controversial decision to expel the Vaitupuans from Niulakita, and arrange for residents of [[Niutao]] to settle there instead, because Niutao was
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| [[Funafuti]]||[[Vaiaku]]|| align="right" | 2.40 || align="right" | 277||align=right| 6,320 || align="right" | 30||align=right|9||8°31′S 179°13′E
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| [[Nanumea]]||[[
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| [[Nui (atoll)|Nui]]||[[Tanrake]]|| align="right" | 2.83|| align="right" | 17||align=right| 610 || align="right" | 21||align=right|4||07°13′29″S 177°09′37″E
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