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Ancient Coral Reef Uncovered in South Pacific
from BBC News Online
An ancient reef found in the Pacific may provide clues to what will happen to coral when sea temperatures rise. A team of researchers from Australia and New Zealand have discovered a huge 9,000-year-old reef surprisingly far south.
Lord Howe Island is 600km east of the Australian mainland and has a small modern coral reef--the furthest south in the world. The ancient reef however is nearly 30 times as large as the modern reef.
The scientists, headed by Colin Woodroffe from the University of Wollongong in Australia and researchers from Geoscience Australia, discovered a large ridge about 30m under water in the Tasman Sea. They have published their work in Geophysical Research Letters. The team suspected it might be an ancient reef. The size and shape of the ridge can be mapped using a type of sonar called multi-beam echo sounding. The researchers could not be sure it was coral until they had taken samples.
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