Principles of Geology / or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology

by Sir Charles Lyell

Elizabeth, or Henderson's Island.

It will be seen, from the annexed sketch, communicated to me by Lieutenant Smith, of the Blossom, that the trees came down to the beach towards the centre of the island; a break at first sight resembling the openings which usually lead into lagoons; but the trees stand on a steep slope, and no hollow of an ancient lagoon was perceived.

Beechey also remarks, that the surface of Henderson's Island is flat, and that in Queen Charlotte's Island, one of the same group, but under water, there was no lagoon, the coral having grown up everywhere to one level. The probable cause of this obliteration of the central basin or lagoon will be considered in the sequel.

That the bed of the Pacific and Indian oceans, where atolls are frequent, must have been sinking for ages, might be inferred, says Mr. Darwin, from simply reflecting on two facts; first, that the efficient coral-building zoophytes do not flourish in the ocean at a greater depth than 120 feet; and, secondly, that there are spaces occupying areas of many hundred thousand square miles, where all the islands consist of coral, and yet none of which rise to a greater height than may be accounted for by the action of the winds and waves on broken and triturated coral. Were we to take for granted that the floor of the ocean had remained stationary from the time when the coral began to grow, we should be compelled to assume that an incredible number of submarine mountains of vast height (for the ocean is always deep, and often unfathomable between the different atolls) had all come to within 120 feet of the surface, and yet no one mountain had risen above water. But no sooner do we admit the theory of subsidence, than this great, difficulty vanishes. However varied may have been the altitude of different islands, or the separate peaks of particular mountain-chains, all may have been reduced to one uniform level by the gradual submergence of the loftiest points, and the additions made to the calcareous cappings of the less elevated summits as they subsided to great depths.

Openings into the lagoons.—In the general description of atolls and encircling reefs, it was mentioned that there is almost always a deep narrow passage opening into the lagoon, or into the still water between the reef and the shore, which is kept open by the efflux of the sea as the tide goes down.

The origin of this channel must, according to the theory of subsidence before explained, be traced back to causes which were in action during the existence of the encircling reef, and when an island or mountain-top rose within it, for such a reef precedes the atoll in the order of formation. Now in those islands in the Pacific, which are large enough to feed small rivers, there is generally an opening or channel in the surrounding coral reef at the point where the stream of fresh water enters the sea. The depth of these channels rarely exceeds twenty-five feet; and they may be attributed, says Captain Beechey, to the aversion of the lithophytes to fresh water, and to the probable absence of the mineral matter of which they construct their habitations.[1131]

Mr. Darwin, however, has shown, that mud at the bottom of river-courses is far more influential than the freshness of the water in preventing the growth of the polypi, for the walls which inclose the openings are perpendicular, and do not slant off gradually, as would be the case, if the nature of the element presented the only obstacle to the increase of the coral-building animals.

When a breach has thus been made in the reef, it will be prevented from closing up by the efflux of the sea at low tides; for it is sufficient that a reef should rise a few feet above low-water mark to cause the waters to collect in the lagoon at high tide, and when the sea falls, to rush out at one or more points where the reef happens to be lowest or weakest. This event is strictly analogous to that witnessed in our estuaries, where a body of salt water accumulated during the flow issues with great velocity at the ebb of the tide, and scours out or keeps open a deep passage through the bar, which is almost always formed at the mouth of a river. At first there are probably many openings, but the growth of the coral tends to obstruct all those which do not serve as the principal channels of discharge; so that their number is gradually reduced to a few, and often finally to one. The fact observed universally, that the principal opening fronts a considerable valley in the encircled island, between the shores of which and the outer reef there is often deep water, scarcely leaves any doubt as to the real origin of the channel in all those countless atolls where the nucleus of land has vanished.

Size of atolls and barrier reefs.—In regard to the dimensions of atolls, it was stated that some of the smallest observed by Beechey in the Pacific were only a mile in diameter. If their external slope under water equals upon an average an angle of 45°, then would such an atoll at the depth of half a mile, or 2640 feet, have a diameter of two miles. Hence it would appear that there must be a tendency in every atoll to grow smaller, except in those cases where oscillations of level enlarge the base on which the coral grows by throwing down a talus of detrital matter all round the original cone of limestone.

Bow Island is described by Captain Beechey as seventy miles in circumference, and thirty in its greatest diameter, but we have seen that some of the Maldives are much larger.