New discovery of reef taller than Empire State Building in Australia

A coral reef which is bigger than the Empire State Building has been discovered north of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

The investigation found that the reef is 1.5 km wide at its base and it is the first of its kind to be found in the area in two centuries.

The vertical reef, which is over 500 metres tall, was found by Australian scientists on the Falkor, a ship owned by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, during their year-long exploration of Australia's oceans.

The scientists used 3D seabed mapping tools and an underwater robot, called SuBastian, whose findings were live-streamed on YouTube.

Tom Bridge, the principal investigator of the mission, said: "What it highlights is how little we know about a lot of the ocean, even the Great Barrier Reef. The marine park is 344,000 square kilometres – bigger than many European countries – and only about 6 or 7% of that is typical shallow-water reefs."

He added that SuBastian's footage of the reef showed that it is a habitat to many species of fish, including grey reef sharks.