the Aceh province of Indonesia). Most of these Asian reefs
remain poorly studied (Tomascik et al., 1997).
The home of the most significant barrier reefs is the
Western Pacific (Figure 2). Besides the Ribbon Reefs of
the Great Barrier Reef, which span 1,200 km, New Caledonia is surrounded by an intertidal 1,300 km long barrier
that includes a large variety of morphologies (Figure 1).
The Eastern region of Papua New Guinea, also harbor
a
b
c
d
e
g
f
5 km
5 km
5 km
5 km
5 km
5 km
5 km
Barrier Reef (Ribbon Reef), Figure 1 Examples of outer barrier reef morphologies captured with the Landsat 7 spaceborne sensor.
All images have been rotated for a better comparison. Scales are different. (a) A section of the Belize barrier reef with a narrow
intertidal reef flat, (b) a double barrier reef on the east coast of New Caledonia, (c) a coastal barrier reef on the West Coast of
New Caledonia, (d) a partly drowned, partly intertidal barrier reef on the southeast coast of New Caledonia, (e) an imbricated barrier
reef on the southwest coast of New Caledonia; differences between reef flat structures when the reef is bending are evidenced in
this example, (f) a fringing-barrier reef in New Georgia, Solomon Islands, (g) a faro-barrier reef, on the west side of Suddest Island,
in eastern Papua New Guinea.
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BARRIER REEF (RIBBON REEF)