Topic summary
Coral atoll
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Atoll.
Distribution and size
In most cases, the land area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 metres (16 ft). Measured by total area, Lifou (1,146 km, 442 sq mi) is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island (660 km, 250 sq mi). More sources, however, list Kiritimati as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area. It is also a raised coral atoll (321 km, 124 sq mi land area; according to other sources even 575 km, 222 sq mi), 160 km (62 sq mi) main lagoon, 168 km (65 sq mi) other lagoons (according to other sources 319 km, 123 sq mi total lagoon size).