A coral reef bigger than the Empire State Building has been discovered! - video

Australian scientists have just announced their latest and most spectacular discovery. It is the location of a previously unknown reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef, for the first time in 120 years.

From the information available, we know that the newly discovered reef is so huge that with its height reaching 500 metres, it even surpasses the legendary New York skyscraper Empire State Bulding!

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This stunning discovery was made by researchers just one week ago, on 20 October 2020. The international scientific team, led by marine geologist Dr Robin Beaman of James Cook University in Townsville, located it in the northern Cape York area.

We are surprised and excited by what we have found. It is amazing to be able to see not only a detailed 3D representation of the reef, but also video footage captured with the SuBastian robot,” commented Dr Beaman

Video footage captured on 25 October by the remotely operated robot SuBastian can be seen below. All survey work was conducted from aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor vessel, which is currently in the final month of a year-long expedition to map the seabed around Australia.

The base of the blade-like reef is 1.5km wide and rises 500m to a depth of just 40m below the sea surface. This newly discovered freestanding reef joins seven other high, freestanding reefs in the area that have been known since the late 19th century, including the reef on Raine Island, the world’s most important green turtle nesting area.

This unexpected discovery confirms that we continue to find unknown structures and new species in our ocean. With new technologies working like eyes, ears and hands in the deep ocean, we have opportunities to make more discoveries like never before. New ocean landscapes are opening up to us, revealing the ecosystems and diverse life forms that share the planet with us,” said Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of SOI

The Schmidt Ocean Institute, based in California, is a private non-profit foundation established to advance oceanographic research. This year’s expedition succeeded in discovering deep-sea coral gardens, the longest recorded sea creature – a 45-metre siphonophore – and up to 30 new species inhabiting the waters off Western Australia. In turn, five undescribed species of black corals and sponges were discovered in the east of the continent and a rare species of scorpene fish inhabiting Australian waters was observed for the first time.

The expedition, conducted aboard Falkor, is expected to run until 17 November and extensive seabed mapping created from the documentation collected will be made available through the Ausbed programme.