A faro is a special type of annular reef, a small shelf atoll, formed on the rim or interior bank of a major compound or composite atoll or barrier reef; thus, an atoll of second order, a miniature atoll, but not to be confused with a microatoll (q.v.), which is usually less than 10 meters across.
The term “faro” comes from the Maldive Islands of the Indian Ocean, where these phenomena are best known (Gardiner, 1903, p. 155; Agassiz, 1903, p. xii). The Maldivian term velu is applied here to the lagoons of the faros. Faros are also found on the edges of the big compound atolls of the Flores Sea (Paternoster Islands, Tijger Islands: see Kuenen, 1933).
It is evident that faros are developed basically in a two-cycle evolution: (a) the development of the initial major atoll platform (which probably involved a negative eustatic sea-level oscillation, with subaerial erosion into a saucer-shaped platform (see MacNeil's explanation under Atoll); (b) followed by a phase of submergence and...
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References
Agassiz, A., 1903, The coral reefs of the Maldives, Mem. Museum Comp. Zoology, Harvard Coll., 29, 168pp.
Gardiner, J. S., 1903, Coral reefs of the Indian Ocean, in The Fauna and Geography of the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes, Vol. 1, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Kuenen, P. H., 1933, Geology of coral reefs, Snellius Exped., 5, Part 2, 125pp.
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Fairbridge, R.W. (1968). Faro . In: Geomorphology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_124
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