Sixth Grade
Worksheets
How Do Coral Reefs Form?
Coral reefs - they have the shapes and colors of beautiful works of art. Every year, tourists arrive by the thousands like schools of tropical fish to take a once-in-a-lifetime look at these fabulous sculptures made by nature. In fact, so many tourists have visited that scientists fear the coral reefs are being destroyed. Conservationists in some parks where coral reefs are located have even asked if it is possible to repair or rebuild a reef.
If you were interested in one of these projects, you might want to know how coral reefs were formed in the first place. When you begin your research, one of the first things you will learn is that a coral reef takes thousands and thousands of years to form. So, a reef cannot be rebuilt. Some attempts to repair a reef using pieces broken off from other reefs during a storm have been a little more successful. Still you will see that, for anyone interested in having beautiful coral reefs for future generations to enjoy, the important thing is to preserve the ones that are on earth now.
Learning how coral reefs are formed can help us to appreciate and preserve them. It can help to make us aware of how important the reefs are, not only because they are beautiful but also because they are homes to some of the most diverse populations of sea creatures anywhere.
Coral reefs form around the edges of land masses - islands or continents - mostly in tropical or subtropical locations. They grow where the water is warm, salty, clear, and not too deep.
