The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger, open body of water. It is typically associated with the ocean, such as coastal lagoons and coral reef lagoons. Lagoon also can be used to describe shallow areas of liquid waste material as in sewage lagoons. Oceanic lagoons can be formed in several ways. Coastal lagoons are typically found along coastlines where there are sand bars or barrier islands that separate the open ocean from the near shore body of water. Coral reef lagoons can form in two ways. The first type is found in barrier reefs such as those in Australia and Belize, where there is a body of water (lagoon) which is separated from the open ocean by the reef formed many miles off shore. Another type of lagoon is that formed in the center of atolls, which are circular or horse-shoe shaped bodies of water in the middle of partially sunken volcanic islands with coral reefs growing around their periphery. Some of these atoll lagoons are more than 30 mi (50 km) across and have breathtaking visibility, thus providing superb sites for SCUBA diving.