Colossal Reef Discovered Off Australia's Coast Is Taller Than Empire State Building
Scientists have discovered a new detached coral reef at the northern tip of the Great Barrier Reef – and it stands an impressive 500 metres (1,640 feet) high, taller than the Empire State Building, the Sydney Tower and the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.
It's the first such discovery in the region for 120 years, made by a team from the Schmidt Ocean Institute using underwater mapping technology, and then captured on camera by the SuBastian diving robot. The researchers are currently on a 12-month mission to map the underwater landscape around Australia.
The gigantic reef, separate from the Great Barrier Reef but still fixed to the ocean floor, joins several other tall reefs in the region – including the one at Raine Island, an important habitat and breeding area for green turtles.
"This unexpected discovery affirms that we continue to find unknown structures and new species in our ocean," says Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of the Schmidt Ocean Institute. "The state of our knowledge about what's in the ocean has long been so limited."
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-new-reef-discovered-off-australia-s-coast-is-taller-than-the-empire-state-building
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