What is a Coral Reef?

Even before you can go on and venture into our blog on how to save the coral reefs, you must first know what is a coral reef.
Most people think about the coral reefs in this way:" Coral reefs are the plants in the sea and do not really affect our enviroment except for our enviroment's beauty."
Well coral reefs are actually more than meets the eye. Coral reefs are actually carbonate mineral structures produced by living organisms. Apparently, coral reefs actually come in many forms. Such as:
1)Fringing Reef- a reef that is directly attached to a shore or borders it with an intervening shallow channel or lagoon.
2)Barrier Reef-a reef separated from a mainland or island shore by a deep lagoon (one famous barrier reef is the great barrier reef at the sea near Australia which is possible to be seen in outer space).
3)Patch reef-an isolated, often circular reef, usually within a lagoon or embayment.
4)Apron reef-a short reef resembling a fringing reef, but more sloped; extending out and downward from a point or peninsular shore.
5)Bank reef- linear or semi-circular in outline, larger than a patch reef.
6)Ribbon reef-a long, narrow, somewhat winding reef, usually associated with an atoll lagoon.
7)Atoll reef-a more or less circular or continuous barrier reef extending all the way around a lagoon without a central island.
8)Table reef-an isolated reef, approaching an atoll type, but without a lagoon