This newly discovered coral reef is gigantic – 500 meters high

This newly discovered coral reef is gigantic - 500 meters high

Despite its size, at more than 500 meters high, taller than the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower, we had not yet seen this monumental coral reef, the first to be discovered in 120 years .

The reef was discovered by Australian scientists aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor, currently on an exploration of the ocean around Australia.

Great Barrier Reef

The base of the blade-shaped reef is 1.5 kilometers wide, rising 500 meters to its lowest depth of just 40 meters below the surface of the sea .

The reef, detached from the Great Barrier Reef, was discovered while conducting an underwater mapping of the seafloor north of the Great Barrier Reef. It was then explored by the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s SuBastian underwater robot.

The dive was streamed live, and the high-resolution images were first viewed and streamed on the Schmidt Ocean Institute website and YouTube channel .

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