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How were the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria, Australia, formed?
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lagoon
Lagoons lie behind the coral reef and barrier islands surrounding Raiatea and Tahaa in the Society Islands, Pacific Ocean.
The Gippsland Lakes in Victoria, Australia, are a complex system of interconnected, shallow lagoons that formed behind a 149-km (93-mile) beach barrier.1
The formation of this system is primarily attributed to postglacial subsidence, which resulted in the flooding of the low-lying coastal area. This process is consistent with the general development of barrier island lagoons, where coastal lowlands are inundated as sea level risesāa phenomenon that has occurred globally over the past 20,000 years. The protective barrier, which separates these lagoons from the open sea, was constructed by wave action that deposited sediment along the coast.12