Deep Sea Coral
Scientists just mapped the largest deep-sea coral reef yet, and it’s bigger than Vermont.
It’s called a deep-sea reef because it grows where sunlight cannot reach. This reef was documented at depths ranging from 655 feet to 3,280 feet—more than half a mile below the surface.
Similar to coral reefs where boaters often snorkel in tropical destinations, this deep-sea reef is fragile. However, it’s different in the way it develops. It’s built of filter-feeding corals. There’s no photosynthetic algae here. Instead, the deep-sea corals get energy from particles floating in the water, in darkness and cold, well below the thermocline.
This is another amazing component of that great river that powerfully, yet silently, resides off our eastern seaboard!
/fl