World’s largest known coral — visible from space — found in Solomon Islands

Scientists aboard a National Geographic research vessel recently discovered the largest known coral in the world. The massive coral, which is 34 meters wide (112 feet) and 32 meters (105 feet) long, is visible from space. It’s a coral of the species Pavona clavus, which typically grows to just 2-3 meters (6.5 to 9.8 feet) across. The newly discovered coral was likely able to grow so large due to a combination of favorable oceanographic conditions as well as its location in a well-protected, extremely remote area near the Solomon Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, Eric Brown, a marine ecologist with the U.S. National Park Service who was on the expedition that discovered the coral, told Mongabay in a phone call. However, “despite its remote location, this coral is not safe from global warming and other human threats,” Enric Sala, National Geographic explorer in residence and founder of Pristine Seas, said in a press release. Runoff and pollution can be toxic to coral. At the same time, warming ocean conditions are leading to coral bleaching worldwide, with as much as 77% of the world’s corals exposed to bleaching-level heat in 2023. The coral is a network of roughly a billion individual polyps. Based on its size, scientists estimate the gigantic coral is between 300 and 500 years old. Though to know the exact age, scientists will have to take a core sample of the coral and count the rings of growth, much like determining the age of a tree. In…This article was originally published on Mongabay