Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: An Overview
- Part One NAVIGATORS AND NATURALISTS IN THE AGE OF SAIL
- Part Two A NEW ERA IN REEF AWARENESS: FROM EARLY SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION TO CONSERVATION AND HERITAGE
- Chapter 11 ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF CORAL REEFS: FROM FORSTER TO DARWIN
- Chapter 12 DARWIN'S LEGACY: CORAL REEF CONTROVERSY 1863–1923
- Chapter 13 EXPLOITATION CHALLENGED: RISE OF ECOLOGY
- Chapter 14 REEF RESEARCH AND CONTROVERSY: 1920–1930
- Chapter 15 THE LOW ISLES EXPEDITION, 1928–1929: PLANNING AND PREPARATION
- Chapter 16 BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF THE LOW ISLES EXPEDITION
- Chapter 17 FROM DEPRESSION TO WAR: TOURISM, CONSERVATION AND SCIENCE, 1929–1939
- Chapter 18 THE PACIFIC WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH
- Chapter 19 A NEW PROBLEM: THE CONSERVATION CONTROVERSY, 1958–1972
- Chapter 20 CRISIS RESOLUTION: FORMATION OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY
- Chapter 21 A NEW ERA: RESEARCH BASED MANAGEMENT
- Chapter 22 THE REEF UNDER PRESSURE: RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT
- Chapter 23 THE REEF AS HERITAGE: A CHALLENGE FOR THE FUTURE
- References
- Index
Chapter 11 - ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF CORAL REEFS: FROM FORSTER TO DARWIN
from Part Two - A NEW ERA IN REEF AWARENESS: FROM EARLY SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION TO CONSERVATION AND HERITAGE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: An Overview
- Part One NAVIGATORS AND NATURALISTS IN THE AGE OF SAIL
- Part Two A NEW ERA IN REEF AWARENESS: FROM EARLY SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION TO CONSERVATION AND HERITAGE
- Chapter 11 ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF CORAL REEFS: FROM FORSTER TO DARWIN
- Chapter 12 DARWIN'S LEGACY: CORAL REEF CONTROVERSY 1863–1923
- Chapter 13 EXPLOITATION CHALLENGED: RISE OF ECOLOGY
- Chapter 14 REEF RESEARCH AND CONTROVERSY: 1920–1930
- Chapter 15 THE LOW ISLES EXPEDITION, 1928–1929: PLANNING AND PREPARATION
- Chapter 16 BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF THE LOW ISLES EXPEDITION
- Chapter 17 FROM DEPRESSION TO WAR: TOURISM, CONSERVATION AND SCIENCE, 1929–1939
- Chapter 18 THE PACIFIC WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH
- Chapter 19 A NEW PROBLEM: THE CONSERVATION CONTROVERSY, 1958–1972
- Chapter 20 CRISIS RESOLUTION: FORMATION OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY
- Chapter 21 A NEW ERA: RESEARCH BASED MANAGEMENT
- Chapter 22 THE REEF UNDER PRESSURE: RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT
- Chapter 23 THE REEF AS HERITAGE: A CHALLENGE FOR THE FUTURE
- References
- Index
Summary
Throughout the early decades of the nineteenth century when British naval ships were actively surveying the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, the new science of geology was becoming increasingly important in the search for an understanding of the origin and structure of coral reefs. In particular, growing evidence of marine deposits on land, especially in elevated strata, was attracting much speculative attention and rapidly initiated a new direction of investigation in the long history of inquiry into the nature of coral.
MYSTERY OF CORAL: THE ANCIENT QUEST
Already, a formidable record of theories and explanations concerning coral had developed over several millennia: in terms of recorded observations, from the time of Aristotle during the reign of Alexander the Great in the fourth century bc. The word ‘coral’ itself first appears in the work of Theophrastus (c.372–c.285 bc) who succeeded Aristotle as director of the Lyceum. In his treatise on minerals, Peri lithon (‘On Stones’), Theophrastus described a kind of rock by the term kouralion, later transliterated into Latin as curalium, then, centuries later, into Italian as corallo, and French as corail, with cognates in all European languages. Only a fragment of Peri lithon survives today, but we find there the first mention of coral in a brief description: ‘coral is similar to a stone, is shaped like a root, and found in the sea’ (VII.39).
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- The Great Barrier ReefHistory, Science, Heritage, pp. 173 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002