Is coral hard?

Question

Is coral hard?

Answer 1

Coral, the animal is actually quite soft.  The limestone shell that coral produces for protection is as hard as any other type of limestone.

Answer 2

yes it can sink boats and strip the flesh of humans and you can kill somebody with a club encrusted with coral

Answer 3

yes, unless it is fan coral

Answer 4

The polyps are not hard, but the dead shell is hard.

Answer 5

yeh, when i was in cuba we were told not to touch the coral, but being a goon i did anyway and scratched my hand on it. Its  rock hard but i'm sure there must be some types that are soft and flexiible...

Answer 6

It depends on what kind of coral.

Hard corals produce a rock-like skeleton made of the same material as classroom chalk (calcium carbonate). These skeletons and the various shapes of different colonies form the familiar structure of the reef. Hard corals rely on symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) living within their tissues for nutrition and energy to build their skeleton. Soft corals look like colorful plants or graceful trees and are not reef-building since they do not produce the hard calcified skeleton of many reef-building corals. However, soft corals do produce smaller amounts of calcium carbonate that help them keep their shape.

Answer 7

Hard coral is hard.

Soft coral is soft.

Answer 8

Most coral is hard. Some are soft when alive, but then hardens after it dies.

Answer 9

Hiya =)

Well, just incase you didn't know (I didn't either until my friends told me), there are two types of corals. Hard and soft, lol.

Hard corals have hard limestone skeletons (makes me shudder thinking of the word skeleton! '~'), which forms the basis of coral reefs.

Soft corals, unlike the hard corals, they don't build reefs.

Does this help??? Please say it did! If so... =D Anyway, what I was really meant to say at the end was, I hope I have helped and answered you question =) Thanks for asking!

Answer 10

coral is crusty lol

Answer 11

Soft and hard - it is a plant of the ocean.

It is harder when it is removed from the ocean and often jewellery can be made from it.