Some discoveries are more impressive than others and finding the largest deep-sea coral reef habitat in the world is pretty damn impressive.
The team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
“For years we thought much of the Blake Plateau was sparsely inhabited, soft sediment, but after more than 10 years of systematic mapping and exploration, we have revealed one of the largest deep-sea coral reef habitats found to date anywhere in the world,” said Kasey Cantwell, operations chief for NOAA Ocean Exploration, in a
Data from 31 multibeam
The reef habitat is vast – it’s nearly the size of
The area, aptly nicknamed “Million Mounds”, consists mostly of the stone coral Desmophyllum pertusum and has an average water temperature of 4°C (39°F). The area is also deep, found roughly 200 to 1,000 meters (656 to 3,280 feet) below the surface. No sunlight can penetrate these depths; instead, the corals filter-feed on nutrients from the surrounding seawater. Despite this, the coral is referred to as an
“Approximately 75% of the global ocean is still unmapped in any kind of detail, but many organizations are working to change that,” said Dr Derek Sowers, mapping operations manager for the Ocean Exploration Trust and lead author of the study.
“This strategic multiyear and multi-agency effort to systematically map and characterize the stunning coral ecosystem right on the doorstep of the U.S. East Coast is a perfect example of what we can accomplish when we pool resources and focus on exploring the approximately 50% of U.S. marine waters that are still unmapped,” Sowers added.
We can’t wait to see what else NOAA and their partners discover next.
The study is published in