Skip to main content
The study suggests that the island is built from sediment generated by the surrounding coral reef, such as from crushed up dead coral, weathered shells and dried-up microorganisms. (Dan Polhemus/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr under CC BY-NC 2.0)
sprep-pa

Across the globe, sea level rise is threatening island communities. But in the Pacific Ocean, some atolls—ring-shaped islands sitting on coral reefs—are actually expanding over time, posing a perplexing paradox: How can drowning islands also be growing? In a new study published last month in the journal Advancing Earth and Space Science, a team of scientists studied Jeh Island, an atoll in the Marshall Islands...They found that the island's area has grown by 13 percent since 1943...

Original Article