Scientists Have Discovered A Coral Reef Taller Than The Empire State Building In The Great Barrier Reef

Schmidt Ocean Institute has discovered the first massive detached coral reef in 120 years in the Great Barrier Reef last Monday.

At over 500m in height, it means that the reef found in offshore Cape York is taller than the Empire State Building and the Sydney Tower.

Australian scientists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor first discovered the reef on October 20th, led by Dr. Robin Beaman, whilst they were conducting an underwater mapping of the northern Great Barrier Reef seafloor.

Five days later, the team of scientists conducted a dive using the non-profit organisation’s underwater robot SuBastian to explore the newly discovered reef. The entire dive was live-streamed and is available to watch on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s website and YouTube channel.

Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Ocean Institute, claims it is thanks to new technologies that they have been able to expand their knowledge about what is in the Ocean and have the capacity to explore it to an unimaginable extent.

“This unexpected discovery affirms that we continue to find unknown structures and new species in our Ocean,” she said, “New oceanscapes are opening to us, revealing the ecosystems and
diverse life forms that share the planet with us.”

The reef has been described as ‘blade-like’ in shape, with a base of 1.5km wide and a height of 500m, with its tallest point being 40m below the sea surface.

This new detached reef is the eighth to have been found in the area, mapped since the late 1800s. Amongst the seven tall detached reefs is the reef at Raine Island, which is the world’s most important green sea turtle nesting area.

The Northern depths of the Great Barrier Reef voyage will continue until mid-November as part of Schmidt Ocean Institute’s year-long Australia campaign.