How Was The Great Barrier Reef Formed?

The Great Barrier Reef lies along the northeast coast of Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and it has been declared as World Heritage Park. A popular and major Australian tourist destination, the Great Barrier Reef attracts hundreds of tourists from around the world.

The Great Barrier Reef

It is believed that 1.2 million years ago, there was a drastic change in climate conditions. When the polar ice caps started to melt, the sea levels rose. The records show that the sea levels rose and fell at least 24 times. Due to this Australia’s continental shelf was flooded and corals growing on the edges of these shelves kept pace with the rising sea levels to form the Great Barrier Reef.

The marine geoscientists have discovered that a reef range of the size of Great Barrier Reef took somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 years to form. A series of 3000 individual reefs and 1000 islands together form the Great Barrier Reef. Approximately 400 species of corals are found in the Great Barrier Reef. The reef supports around 2000 different varieties of fish.To this date around 4000 species of mollusk have been identified.

How do The Barrier Reefs Get Formed?

The reefs require adequate amount of sunlight. They grow only in shallow and clean water. A reef can be made of any of the three substances - sand, rock or coral. The temperature that is conducive for the formation of reefs is between 18 degree Celsius and 30 degree Celsius.

The sea animals called polyps form colonies that make the reefs. A coral polyp resembles a sea anemone. This animal has many tentacles around its mouth. Many polyps join together to form a colony. The Barrier Reef is made of many coral reefs. Each coral polyp is associated with an alga. The photosynthesis by an alga helps the polyp to make a coral skeleton. The skeletons are made of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate. These coral skeletons form quickly and are the foundation on which coral reefs are built. Two coral skeletons are sealed together by calcium carbonate produced by algae. Thus the reefs including the Great Barrier Reef are formed due to the association between a sea animal and a single-celled plant.

Location of the Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world. The stretch of this wonderful natural structure measures to around 1,250 miles along the northeastern coast of Queensland, Australia, in the Coral Sea. The Great Barrier Reef is surrounded by 208,000 kilometers of water. It is a natural breakwater that act as a buffer between the strong waves of the Pacific Ocean and the coast of Australia.

Global Warming and the Great Barrier Reef

Global warming is a threat to coral reefs. When the ocean temperature increases coral bleaching occurs; that is the symbiotic alga inside the polyps die, which causes the polyps to turn white and eventually die. In 1998, coral bleaching affected approximately 90% of the Great Barrier Reef. The coral reefs are endangered by the unprecedented climatic change. The coral ecosystem is bound to get physically damaged if there is an increase in the sea levels and also in the frequency of the tropical storms. Only curbing global warming can prevent the destruction of the coral reef. Australian government and the concerned organizations around the world are trying to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

To sum up, the research has shown that the current structure of the Great Barrier Reef is only 8,000 years old and was formed during the last phase of the previous Ice Age. There are coral reefs that are older than the Great Barrier Reef along the coast of southern Europe. Even today, some parts of the barrier reef have not been explored. To save this World Heritage Park from destruction, steps to curb global warming need to be taken on a war footing.