Researchers have discovered a giant coral reef 10.4 meters wide in the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia.
Researchers reported in the scientific journal Scientific Reports Friday that this reef is the widest found on the Great Barrier Reef, and at 5.3 meters it is the sixth highest known reef in the entire reef.
A research team led by Adam Smith of James Cook University in Douglas writes that the 400-year-old stone or block of coral found near Orpheus Island belongs to the Burrits group of flowering animals, and 30 percent of its surface is covered with sponges and algae. boycott.
Burrit’s coral growth is mostly related to average sea surface temperature, based on what researchers believe the giant corals are growing by 1.21 cm per year. It follows that his lifespan could range from 421 to 438 years, which means he was born long before Europeans researched Australia and its inhabitants, the researchers wrote.
The Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS) estimated the age of the oldest flowering animals at 436 years at the 328 Burrits reef sites studied, making the specimen now discovered one of the oldest on the Great Barrier Reef.
The massive coral mass was named by scientists as Muga Dhambi, which means great coral in the indigenous manbarra language that inhabited the area. Moga Dambi seems to have fortunately survived the 99 reef bleaches that have plagued the Great Barrier Reef since 1575, and appears to have been unharmed by the 46 tropical storms recorded in the area between 1858 and 2008.
Among the giant reef explorers is 17-year-old Charlie Veron and world famous coral reef expert, who discovered 20 percent of the world’s coral species.
Opening photo: MTI/EPA/ARC Center Coral Reef Studies/Ed Roberts
