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Great Barrier Reef

World's largest coral reef system, visible from outer space.

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Great Barrier Reef

via Wikipedia: Great Barrier Reef · see source

Comprising more than 2,900 distinct reefs and 900 islands, the Great Barrier Reef extends over 2,300 km and is recognized as the planet's largest coral reef system.[1] Situated in the Coral Sea adjacent to Queensland, Australia, this reef system is visible from space.[1][2]

Geography and history

The reef reaches from Torres Strait in the north to the unnamed passage between Lady Elliot Island and Fraser Island in the south.[3] The land that formed the substrate of the current reef was a coastal plain formed from eroded sediments of the Great Dividing Range.[4] Following his detailed survey in 1802, Matthew Flinders gave the Great Barrier Reef its name.[5] Worldwide sea levels rose continuously between 20,000 and 6,000 years ago.[6]

With the rising sea, corals were able to colonize the newly flooded slopes of coastal hills.[6] Approximately 13,000 years in the past, the sea stood only 60 m below its current level, and corals started to encircle the coastal hills.[6]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Great Barrier Reef" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, "Protected Areas and World Heritage – Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area", Department of the Environment and Heritage, 1980; "The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Values"; The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, which is 348,000 km squared, has 2900 reefs. However, this does not include the reefs found in the Torres Strai; Fodor's, "Great Barrier Reef Travel Guide"; Department of the Environment and Heritage, "Review of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975"; "Review of t en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Great Barrier Reef" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Leong, "Certificate Physics And Human Geography; Indian Edition", Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 81; Deeks, "Great Barrier Reef from space", BBC Sky at Night Magazine, September 28, 2024; Sarah Belfield, "Great Barrier Reef: no buried treasure", Geoscience Australia (Australian Government), 8 February 2002; Sharon Guynup, "Australia's Great Barrier Reef", Science World, 4 September 2000; UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, "Protected Areas and World Heritage – Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area", Department of the Envir en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Great Barrier Reef" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Great Barrier Reef General Reference Map", Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, September 2004; A.K. Lobeck, "Physiographic Diagram of Australia", The Geological Press, Columbia University, 1951 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Great Barrier Reef" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tobin, "How the Great Barrier Reef Was Formed", Australian Institute of Marine Science, 2003; Hopley, "The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef: Development, Diversity and Change", Cambridge University Press, 2007; Hopley, "The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef: Development, Diversity and Change", Cambridge University Press, 2007; CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd, "What is the Great Barrier Reef?"; Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, "A 'big picture' view of the Great Barrier Reef", Reef Facts for Tour Guides, 2006, p. 3; en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Great Barrier Reef" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Great Barrier Reef Timeline", GBR Biology, 2022; Flinders, "A voyage to Terra Australis: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803... (volume 2)", G. & W. Nicol, 1814; Flinders, "A voyage to Terra Australis: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803... (volume 2)", G. & W. Nicol, 1814 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Great Barrier Reef" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tobin, "How the Great Barrier Reef Was Formed", Australian Institute of Marine Science, 2003; CRC Reef Research Centre Ltd, "What is the Great Barrier Reef?"; Harris, "Submerged banks in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, greatly increase available coral reef habitat", ICES Journal of Marine Science, 1 March 2013, p. 284–293; Hopley, "The Geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef: Development, Diversity and Change", Cambridge University Press, 2007 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Great Barrier Reef (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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