جانب الشعب المواجه للبحر Fore reef، يتكون من منحدر مكون من الحطام ، الناشئ عن تفتت واجهة الشعب.[2]
موقع الشعاب الخلفية
نمو الشعب
This dynamic animation shows the dynamic process of coral atoll formation. Corals (represented in tan and purple) settle and grow around an oceanic island, forming a fringing reef. In favorable conditions, the reef expands, and the interior island subsides. Eventually the island completely subsides beneath the water, leaving a ring of growing coral with an open lagoon in its center. The process of atoll formation may take as long as 30,000,000 years.