Scientists discover ‘unbelievable’ deep-sea coral reef off coast of South Carolina
Tehran (KNA) - Scientists have discovered what they say is an “unbelievable” 85-mile stretch of coral reef off the eastern coast of the United States.
Researchers uncovered the reef some 160 miles from the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, this week, while examining deep-sea ridges and mounds that divers discovered earlier this summer.
The scientists long suspected the mounds were covered in coral, researcher Erik Cordes said. When they dove half a mile under the water this week to investigate, they found "mountains of it".
"We couldn't find a place that didn't have corals," Mr Cordes told the Huffington Post. The reef was largely composed of Lophelia - a stony type of coral that is among the most dominant in the deep sea, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Lophelia reefs have already been discovered off the coast of Florida and North Carolina, as deep as 600 meters underwater. But researchers were not expecting to find them here, so deep under the surface and so far from the shore.
"This is a huge feature," Mr Cordes said. "It's incredible that it stayed hidden off the US East Coast for so long."
Source: Independent