In a recent discovery, a sky scrapper-sized coral found in Australia's Great Barier Reef stands to be taller than the size of the Empire Building, US.
The 'detached' reef has been the first to be discovered in more than 120 years off Cape York in North Queensland. The reef measures about 1.5 km long and rises from 500 meters to 40 meters underwater. It's
A detached reef is embedded to the ocean floor and is not part of the main Great Barrier Reef.
The reef has been estimated to be 20 million years old and sits among a clusters of seven similar reefs, which have been mapped in the 1800s, reports ABC News.
The crest of the reef also has a healthy population of fish and shark.
The reef has been discovered on October 20 as part of Australia's 12 month mapping project of it's oceans.
The team has been collecting the samples from the reef with the help of an underwater robot called 'SuBastian'.
Measuring a whooping, 1,640 feet, the reef is taller than France's Eiffel Tower and The Shard — Britain's tallest building — which stand at 1,063 and 1,016 feet, respectively, reports Daily Mail.
As part of this underwater project, researchers have also discovered a series of unknown water species, including world's longest recorded sea creature called, siphonophore, a 148-foot jelly-fish like creature in Ningaloo Canyon.
"To find a new half-a-kilometre tall reef in the offshore Cape York area of the well-recognised Great Barrier Reef shows how mysterious the world is just beyond our coastline," said Schmidt Ocean Institute executive director Jyotika Virmani.
This new discovery will further help scientists and researchers to study the Great Barrier Reef and the impact of the recent reef on it.
In another event, a recent research has presented another grim report regarding nature’s creation, the Great Barrier Reef.
According to Townsville-based Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, the renowned natural beauty near Australia has lost half of its corals over the past 25 years. The study assessed coral communities and size between 1995 and 2017 and found the number of small, medium and large corals had fallen more than 50 per cent.
The lead author of the study, Andreas Dietzel said the main cause of the unfortunate coral death was human-induced climate change which has affected the favourable environment required for the corals to exist.