List of islands of Tuvalu: Difference between revisions

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 web| 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) |publisher= Nature Communications |year = 9 February 2018|url= http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02954-1| access-date=11 February 2018}}</ref> The reef platforms do have a completely enclosed rim of dry land, and the rim surrounds the 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.