Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia
© Dick Sweeney/Gallery Stock
Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia
This natural wonder includes more than 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching over an area of about 133,000 square miles – numbers that become even more amazing when you learn the reef was created by teeny, tiny marine invertebrates. Coral reefs are formed when colonies of coral polyps secrete hard exoskeletons made of calcium carbonate, slowly building an underwater home to support marine life of all shapes and sizes. That’s a feat worth protecting.
Related Images
Beach huts on West Cliff Beach, Whitby, North Yorkshire
St Catherine’s Island, Tenby, Pembrokeshire
Mangrove trees, Walakiri Beach, Sumba Island, Indonesia
The Minokake-Iwa rocks off the coast of the Izu Peninsula, Japan
Stormy sky over Skara Brae, a Neolithic village on the Mainland, Orkney
Boats float by rice fields on the Ngo Dong River in Ninh Binh province, Vietnam
Blacktip reef sharks off the coast of Tahiti, French Polynesia
Wave crashing on Farolim de Felgueiras, a lighthouse in Porto, Portugal
Today Bing
The Queen's Guard near Buckingham Palace, London
Jun 11, 2016
