coral reef roughly parallel to the shore and separated from it by a lagoon of considerable depth and width, or in some cases by several kilometres of open sea
a long, narrow coral reef, roughly parallel to the shore and separated from it by a lagoon of considerable depth and width It may lie a great distance from a continental coast It is often interrupted by passes or channels
A long, narrow ridge of coral or rock parallel to and relatively near a coastline, separated from the coastline by a lagoon too deep for coral growth. a line of coral (=pink stone-like substance) separated from the shore by water
One of three geomorophologically distinct types of A HREF="bas01r-6 html#coralreef">coral reefs, the other two being fringing reefs and atolls Barrier reefs are separated from land by a lagoon usually formed by coastal subsidence See Barnes and Hughes (1988)