An Accidental Discovery Finds a Skyscraper-Sized Coral Reef on Great Barrier Reef

India Today / NBC

Scientists in Australia made an amazing yet unexpected discovery in the Great Barrier Reef when they chanced upon a humongous, detached coral reef. The underwater structure stands 1,600-feet tall, making it taller than England’s The Shard, New York City’s Empire State Building, and even France’s beloved Eiffel Tower.

Daily Mail

Researchers announced this astonishing discovery on October 20, explaining that they found a “blade-like” vertical coral reef around 80-miles off Cape York, which is located on Australia’s north-eastern tip. The team of Australian scientists were on the Falkor research vessel belonging to the Schmidt Ocean Institute when they came across the massive reef, the first in 120 years.

They happened to be on a 12-month expedition exploring and mapping the northern seafloor of the Great Barrier Reef when they saw the structure. They explained that it was around a mile-wide at its base while the tallest point reaches to around 130-feet from the water’s surface. About five days after they first saw it, the team utilized the institute’s underwater robot, otherwise known as a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named SuBastian, and went on a live stream dive in order to allow viewers to see it for themselves.


Principal investigator on the expedition, who is from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, Tom Bridge, explained, “It’s a big reef not to have known about. What it highlights is how little we know about a lot of the ocean, even the Great Barrier Reef. The marine park is 344,000 square kilometers – bigger than many European countries – and only about 6 or 7% of that is typical shallow-water reefs.”

“We know more about the surface of the moon than we know about what lies in the depths beyond our coastlines,” he added.

Notably, this newly discovered reef now joins the other seven detached reefs that have been found in that region off the coast of North Queensland, all of which were mapped back in the late 1800s. Of the earlier seven, one is the reef at Raine Island, which is said to be ‘the most important green sea turtle nesting area.’

Meanwhile, co-founder of Schmidt Ocean Institute, Wendy Schmidt, also shared in a statement, “This unexpected discovery affirms that we continue to find unknown structures and new species in our ocean. 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.”

Paper author and marine geologist at James Cook University, Dr. Robin Beaman, who also led the expedition went on to say, “We are surprised and elated by what we have found. To not only 3D map the reef in detail, but also visually see this discovery with SuBastian is incredible.”

Executive Director of Schmidt Ocean Institute, Jyotika Virmani, iterated, “To find a new half-a-kilometer tall reef in the offshore Cape York are of the well-recognized Great Barrier Reef shows how mysterious the world is just beyond our coastline. This powerful combination of mapping data and underwater imagery will be used to understand this new reef and its role within the incredible Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.”

The Great Barrier Reef, which is the world’s largest reef system, is comprised of more than 2,900 individual reefs with over 900 islands that stretch over an expanse of 1,615 miles. It is also home to over 1,500 fish species, as well as sea turtles, sea snakes, whales, dolphins and even birds that visit the reef.


Sadly, it has suffered tons of damage from human activities like overfishing and pollution, as well as from the impact of global warming, like the rise of ocean temperatures, marine pests and rising sea levels, all of which has caused the corals to bleach out.

Despite the devastation to vast portions of the Great Barrier Reef, this newly discovered reef seems to be intact for the most part. It also sits completely separately from the main shelf edge, and since it’s so new, there is still so much to be learned about this detached reef.

In fact, from what the researchers have seen so far, this new reef has “an incredible abundance” of sea fans, sponges and soft corals, as well as reef fish and grey reef sharks. According to scientists, this suggests that the area must be rich in nutrients coming from the ‘strong currents and upwellings of deep waters.’

Dr. Beaman and his colleagues will continue to investigate the northern area of the Great Barrier Reef until November 17. After which, the data from their research will be available to the public through the national Australian sea-bed mapping program, AusSeabed.

 

 

What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news!

True Activist / Report a typo

Popular on True Activist