The Great Barrier Reef near Australia
Published by nerdeff in ACTIVITIES, Australia, Australia, CONTINENTS, COUNTRIES, Scuba Diving, Sightseeings, Surfing, TOPICS, Travel Stories
The Great Barrier Reef is my humble oppinion one of the Nature’s biggest wonders. It is the world’s largest coral reef system, composed of roughly 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands, that stretch for 2,600 kilometres (1,616 mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia. A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is sometimes referred to as the largest single living organism in the world (In reality, it is made up of many millions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyps). The living reef structure is believed to have begun growing about 18,000 years ago, but the oldest coral on the reef now is a species of Porites known as boulder coral, which is only about 1,000 years old and it grows about 1 centimetre per year.
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