Boffins Uncover Secrets Of The Sea Good Greef!

Coral ‘skyscraper’ taller than the Empire State found Down Under

- Stephen White

A GIANT coral reef standing taller than the Empire State Building has been discovered in the Great Barrier Reef.

The detached reef, which is just under a mile wide at its base, rises 1640ft from the sea bed to just 131ft below the surface.

That is over three times as high as the Blackpool Tower, one and a half times as much as the UK’s tallest skyscraper, The Shard, and nearly 400ft more than New York’s 1250ft Empire State Building,

The reef off Cape York on Australia’s north coast is the first to be discovered in over 120 years.

It was found by scientists aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor research vessel as they conducted underwater mapping of the northern Great Barrier Reef sea floor.