'Massive' coral reef taller than the Empire State Building discovered in Australia

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'Massive' coral reef taller than the Empire State Building discovered in Australia

 

Watch Video HERE

 

A "massive" new reef measuring 500 meters (about 1,600 feet) has been discovered in Australia's Great

 

Barrier Reef, making it taller than some of the world's highest skyscrapers.

 

Scientists found the detached reef, which is the first to be discovered in more than 120 years, in waters off

 

North Queensland while on an expedition aboard research vessel Falkor, ocean research organization

 

Schmidt Ocean Institute announced Monday.

 

The reef was first discovered on October 20, as scientists completed an underwater mapping of the

 

seafloor of the northern Great Barrier Reef.

 

At 500 meters high, it is taller than the Empire State Building (381 meters to the top floor), the Sydney

 

Tower (305 meters) and the Petronas Twin Towers (451.9 meters.)

 

Using an underwater robot named SuBastian, the team explored the reef on Sunday, and live streamed

 

footage of the exploration.

 

Experts say that the base of the "blade-like" reef measures 1.5 kilometers wide (nearly 1 mile), rising 500

 

meters to its shallowest depth of 40 meters below the ocean surface

 

The newly discovered detached reef is one of several in the Great Barrier Reef, and the first to be discovered in 120 years.

Schmidt Ocean Institute

 

There are seven other tall detached reefs in the area, including the reef at Raine Island -- a significant

 

green turtle nesting site.

 

Robin Beaman, who led the expedition, said he was "surprised" by the discovery.

 

"To not only 3D map the reef in detail, but also visually see this discovery with SuBastian is incredible," he

 

said in a statement.

 

"This unexpected discovery affirms that we continue to find unknown structures and new species in our

 

ocean," Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Ocean Institute, said in a statement.

 

"The state of our knowledge about what's in the ocean has long been so limited. Thanks to new

 

technologies that work as our eyes, ears and hands in the deep ocean, we have the capacity to explore

 

like never before. New oceanscapes are opening to us, revealing the ecosystems and diverse life forms

 

that share the planet with us."

 

The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, covers nearly 133,000 square miles and is home to

 

more than 1,500 species of fish, 411 species of hard corals and dozens of other species.

 

But the reef is facing a crisis -- recent studies have shown that it has lost 50% of its coral populations in

 

the last three decades, with climate change a key driver of reef disturbance.

 

Source

[caraid]

Weren't we told by scientists that most parts of the Great Barrier Reef are dying (or have died/bleached) due to climate change?