Coral Reefs

Coral Reefs:
Coral reefs are diverse underwater ecosystems held

together by calcium carbonate structures secreted
bycorals. Coral reefs are built by colonies of tiny
animals found in marine water that contain few
nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals,
which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups.
Old is the red sea:

The Red Sea was created 55 million years ago when Africa
started to move away from Arabia. This movement is still
going on, at about 0.6 inches (1.5 cm) per year.
Location of red sea coral reefs:

The Red Sea Coral Reef is located in
the Northern and Eastern hemisphere. It's surrounded by
6 different countries, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Sudan,
Yemen, Djibouti and Eritria. The Red Sea is connected to
the Indian Ocean.
Why do they call it the Red Sea?

The Red Sea is the saltiest sea of all the seas that connect to the
ocean without even one river meeting the sea. A popular
hypotheses about the origins of the Red Sea's name is that it
contains a cyanobacteria called Trichodesmium erythraeum,
which turns the normally blue-green water a reddish-brown.
Thered sea was formed:

The Red Sea was formed by the Arabian peninsula being split from
the Horn of Africa by movement of the Red Sea Rift. This split
started in the Eocene and accelerated during the Oligocene.
The sea is still widening, and it is considered that it will become
an ocean in time (as proposed in the model of John Tuzo Wilson).
Red Sea Coral Reefs

Red Sea coral reefs are the northernmost in the Indian Ocean.
Most of the Red Sea coast is rimmed by shallow submarine
shelves and extensive fringing reef systems, by far the
dominant reef type found here.
Red Sea fringing reef platforms are over 5000 years old, and
the entire coastal reef complex extends along some 2,000 km
(1,240 miles) of shoreline.
The Red Sea also contains numerous offshore reefs that defy
classic reef type categorization.
Included in this catch-all category are atoll-like rings of coral,
elongated coral ridges that rise abruptly from considerable
depths on both sides, and peculiar complex reef patterns of
odd shapes.
Such Red Sea coral reef formations are almost certainly the
result of the active and unusual tectonic forces that have been
at work here for millennia and continue today.
There are a few true atolls in the Red Sea (several off the coast
of Sudan), but no true barrier reefs.
Characteristics of Red Sea Coral Reefs

The geological history of the Red Sea region is distinctive, and
there is only slow and restricted water (and larval) exchange
between this sea and the remainder of the Indo-Pacific region
as a whole.
Thus, Red Sea reefs have developed a number of features that
distinguish them from reefs found throughout most of the rest
of this vast oceanic area.
Particularly important in the light of global warming
predictions is the fact that Red Sea corals have developed an
unusually high tolerance to the extreme temperatures, salinity,
and occasional turbidity (caused by huge seasonal dust storms)
that occur in the region. Such conditions that would be lethal
or highly damaging to most hard corals found elsewhere.
Further south, coral growth is somewhat inhibited by the
influx of nutrient laden water where the Indian Ocean enters
the Red Sea. This surface waters of the more southerly areas
are also subject to far greater mixing with deeper water caused
by strong winds coming off a high mountainous coast.
In general, the marine biota of Red Sea coral reefs is
characterized by high endemism. For example, of the 1200 or
so coral reef fish species recorded, about 10% are endemic
(found nowhere else).
About 300 hard coral species have been recorded from the Red
Sea as a whole. The Egyptian coast alone supports about 200
species of reef building corals belonging to almost 50 genera.
This represents about four times the hard coral diversity found
on Caribbean reefs, and is comparable to the coral
diversity found in the Maldives and Seychelles in the Indian
Ocean.
Nonetheless, the biodiversity of Red Sea reefs does not rival
that of reefs of the richest parts of the Indo-Pacific region.
Status Of Red Sea Reefs:

Still, many Red Sea coral reefs situated near urban centers and
other developed parts of the coast have been heavily damaged
or lost due to the predicatable effects of poorly planned or
regulated population expansions and coastal development,
along with associated declines in water quality.
In some of the once most pristine reef areas, insufficiently
managed dive tourism (damage from anchors and recreational
scuba divers) has also taken its predictable toll on the
reefs.
Studies of diver effects on reefs suggest that continued dive
tourism expansion at some of the more popular tourist
destinations would be ill-advised and will inevitably lead to
serious reef degradation.
A growing number of marine number of protected areas
(MPAs) have been established in the Red Sea to help alleviate
some of these problems. Ras Mohammed National
Park was established by Egypt in 1983 and includes miles of
healthy fringing reefs. The Red Sea Marine Peace Park in the
Gulf of Aqaba was founded in 1994 by the governments of
Jordan and Israel to preserve and protect the area's coral reefs.
Red Sea Geography and Oceanography

The Red Sea is an extension of the Indian Ocean, lying between
the Arabian Peninsula and Africa, with a surface are roughly
equal to the US state of California.
The only natural connection between the Red Sea and the rest
of the Indian Ocean is Bab el Mandeb, a narrow strait that
transitions into the Gulf of Aden.
To the north, the Red Sea splits into two narrow branches (the
Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba) that flank the Sinai
Peninsula.
Overall, the Red Sea is a comparatively shallow body of water
with an average depth of only about 1600 feet. However, it is in
reality a young ocean in the early stage of formation.
As the African and Arabian continents slowly rift apart, new
oceanic crust is formed and slowly but surely the Red Sea is
gradually widening. The tectonic forces at work are most
evident in the deep narrow trench (Rift Valley) that runs most
of the length of the sea at its center, reaching a maximum
depth of over 8,600 feet (2,600 m) below sea level.
The region surrounding the Red Sea is one of the hottest,
driest areas on earth. The extreme air temperatures result in
very high levels of evaporation, making this one of the hottest
and saltiest bodies of seawater in the world.
The average salinity is 40 parts per thousand (ppt), as
compared to about 35-36 (ppt) in the tropical Indian, Pacific,
and Atlantic Oceans. Recent measurements found surface
water temperatures to be 28 degrees C. (82 degrees F.) in
winter and up to 34 degrees C. (93 degrees F.) in summer.
Exploring Red Sea Reefs

Scuba diving and snorkeling on the fringing reefs of the Red Sea
became popular soon after the publicity, books, and films of the
expeditions of Hans Hass and Jacques Cousteau in the 1950s and
1960s were widely disseminated.
Today, the most popular dive destinations along the northern
coast of the Gulf of Aquaba (known as the "Red Sea Riviera")
include Eilat in Israel and Aqaba in Jordan. Other popular
destinations in the Gulf of Aquaba on the the Egyptian side of
Sinai are Dahab and Taba.
Further south, along the western shore of the Red Sea, reef
diving is well supported at Marsa Alam, El Gouna, Safaga, and
Hurghada.
The very popular Egyptian reef diving center of Sham-el-
Sheikh, located on the southern tip of the Sinai, has undergone
rapid expansion recently.

Coral Reefs

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Coral Reefs

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Coral Reefs:

Coral reefs are diverse underwater ecosystems held

Old is the red sea:

Location of red sea coral reefs:

Why do they call it the Red Sea?

Thered sea was formed:

Red Sea Coral Reefs

Characteristics of Red Sea Coral Reefs

Status Of Red Sea Reefs:

Red Sea Geography and Oceanography

Exploring Red Sea Reefs

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