Scientists have discovered a massive ancient hole in the Great Barrier Reef and they’re very excited about what it contains.
Experts dived 65 feet down into the hole, which was found in one of the least explored parts of the Australian natural wonder.
There they discovered stunningly healthy coral — a rare discovery given the reef suffers from widespread coral bleaching.
Marine biologist Johnny Gaskell revealed their discovery in an Instagram post showing the incredible scenic wonder.
He wrote: “This Blue Hole has previously been described by geologists who suggested it could be even older than the famous Great Blue Hole, in Belize.”
“It’s (sic) location is in one of the least explored parts Great Barrier Reef, over 200km from Daydream Island. To get there we had to travel overnight for 10 hours and time the tides perfectly… Was well worth it!”
“Inside the walls was similar to the site we explored a few weeks back, but this hole was deeper and almost perfectly circular.”
“We dived down to just over [65 feet] yesterday, before hitting bare sediment, that slowly sloped towards the center.”
“Again it was great to see big healthy coral colonies. Stay tuned for video footage of the coral within.”
Earlier this year researchers warned The Great Barrier Reef is close to being wiped out and there is “zero chance” of its massive dead zones springing back to life.
This natural wonder has been hit by a series of “mass bleaching” incidents which turn the reefs into barren underwater wastelands.
Last year, the northern areas of the World Heritage-listed area were hardest hit, but the middle third is experiencing the worst effects.
