>Darwins theory of reef formation?
>I didn't know there was such a thing...
Like Einstein after him, Darwin's other research was lost in the glare of his "one big theory." Darwin was the first, or among the first, to propose that atolls originate as fringing reefs surrounding sinking volcanoes. I've been out of the physical geography business for a few years, so I'm not sure how important the theory is to modern oceanography. Project Gutenberg has Darwin's monograph on coral reefs available for download.
-Neil