/ 2010 / Photojournalism / Nature/Environmental

Caught on sinking lands

The Tulun people in the South Pacific Sea live a simple life without electricity and use wooden canoes to travel between the six islands on top of the Tulun Atoll's 61 km (37.9 miles) long reef. As is the case with many low lying pacific islands the sea is expected to submerge Tulun within few generations forcing the 1500 islanders to search for new land. The process of atoll formation may take as long as 30,000,000 years and occur when coral forms on top of an extinct deep sea volcano.