The only living thing on earth that can be seen from the moon stretches from Rockhampton to Papua New Guineain Australia. At its widest, the reef is around 80km wide; at its furthest out it is 300km from the mainland coast, and at its tallest it’s more than 500m thick and its oldest parts have been growing for 18 million years.Coral reefs cover less than one per cent of the planet’s surface but support more than 25 per cent of all marine life among them the great barrier reef of Australia alone supports 1500 species of fish, 400 species of coral, 4,000 species of molluscs, 500 species of seaweed, 215 species of birds and several migrating whales.Global warming, which is the biggest threat to the world’s reefs because they will self destruct in deep waters.Some marine scientists predict that most of the world’s coral will be dead in 40 years.This is a great threat for life in earth.
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