Energy Information Administration - EIA - Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis
Eniwetok Atoll, the target assigned to Admiral Hill's task group, lies 330 nautical miles northwest of Kwajalein.8 It is a typical Central Pacific coral atoll with a circular reef surrounding a lagoon, which at its widest point is seventeen miles from east to west and twenty-one miles from north to south.
Drilling revealed about 1,400 metres (4,600 feet) of reef material. At least two writers have attacked the young age position using the argument that this coral atoll must have taken a very long time to form 1,2 âthey estimate 138,000 and 176,000 years respectively as the minimum age for Eniwetok.ack of light will of course kill a reefâno live coral growth takes place below about 50 metres under the surface. Hence thick atolls such as Eniwetok require the ocean floor to sink as the coral builds. As the coral is lowered, faster growth is possible than that which we measure at the surface.