The floating stone on a closer examination reveals that it is a coral. Corals of the genus Favia, Platygyra etc. are kept  floating  in  a  tank  filled with water. The scientific explanations of the floating corals are examined.

The scientific significance of  floating coral are here described

Kasinathan, C

Sukumaran, Sandhya

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TECHNICAL AND EXTENSION SERIESCENTRAL MARINE G46ISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITUTECOCHIN, INDIA(INDIAN COUNCIL OG46 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH)ISSN 0254-380 XMARINE G46ISHERIESING46ORMATION SERVICENo. 182 October, November, December, 2004Mar. G46ish. Infor. Serv., T&E Ser., No. 182, 200410An interesting note on floating coralsIt is believed that a floating stone kept near the fire facedHanuman temple in Rameshwaram was one of thestones used to build the legendary bridge in Ramayanabetween India and Srilanka.The floating stone on a closer examination reveals thatit is a coral. Corals of the genus G46avia, Platygyra etc. arekept floating in a tank filled with water. This is inconformity with the massive floating coral belongingwater is replaced by air'. Hiraya Yamano, a Japanesescientist has also come across such kind of floatingcorals in high latitude reefs. He believes that the lowcalcification rate in high latitudes contributed to thisphenomenon. According to him, the high turbidity inthe tropics reduces the calcification rate which may bethe reason for the low specific gravity of the floatingcorals. The coral belonging to the genus G46avia whichCorals floating in a tank in Rameswaramto the genus G46avia kept floating in the aquarium atMandapam Regional Center of CMG46RI. According toTerry Hughes (personal communication) the scientificexplanation for this is as follows : 'Coral skeletons arenot solid, they have many holes or cavities that areusually filled with water. The size and number ofcavities determines the skeletal density (specificgravity) of a coral, which varies from 0.9 to >2gm/cc.Tall corals need to be more dense to stop them breaking,whereas massive corals like G46avia and Platygyra are lessdense. Corals less than 1gm/cc will float if most of thehas been kept floating in CMG46RI aquarium is obtainedfrom the seashore adjacent to the institute. It looks afossilized form with many cavities and crevices. Withthe help of radiocarbon dating the age of this coral canbe exactly determined. Also this kind of radiocarbonstudies on corals and floating chronologies are widelyused in predicting the past sea level and sea surfacetemperatures. So the floating coral is of great scientificsignificance.Reported by : Sandhya Sukumaran & C. Kasinathan, MandapamRegional Centre of CMG46RI, Mandapam Camp1098

An interesting note on floating corals.

http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/4575/1/Article2.pdf

An interesting note on floating corals.

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