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The World's Largest Coral Reefs - The Earth's Ten Largest Coral ReefsA coral reef is a submerged structure made up of many different corals, or small marine invertebrates. These corals are unable to move and cluster with other corals to form colonies. These colonies then secrete calcium carbonate that causes them to bind together to form the reef. Each of these individual animals is also covered with a hard exoskeleton which makes coral reefs appear very strong and rock-like.
Coral reefs vary in size, type, and location around the world but they are very sensitive to water properties like temperature and chemical composition. Nearly all of the world’s coral reefs, particularly the largest reefs, are in the tropics.
The following is a list of the world’s ten largest coral reefs arranged by their length.
P.S: Note that the last three reefs are listed by their area. The Great Barrier Reef, however, is the largest reef in the world based on both area (134,363 square miles or 348,000 sq km) and length.
1) Great Barrier Reef - Length: 1,553 miles (2,500 km) - Location: The Coral Sea near Australia
Pic Credit: http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/nature/93-percent-of-the-great-barrier-reef-is-suffering.aspx
2) Red Sea Coral Reef - Length: 1,180 miles (1,900 km) - Location: The Red Sea near Israel, Egypt, and Djibouti
Pic Credit: https://www.tesfanews.net/can-red-sea-corals-save-the-worlds-reefs/
3) New Caledonia Barrier Reef - Length: 932 miles (1,500 km) - Location: The Pacific Ocean near New Caledonia
Pic Credit: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/910543472136552451
4) The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef - Length: 585 miles (943 km) - Location: The Atlantic Ocean near Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras
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Pic Credit: https://www.tripsavvy.com/mesoamerican-barrier-reef-1588548
5) Florida Reef - Length: 200 miles (322 km) - Location: The Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico near Florida
Pic Credit: http://www.cakex.org/case-studies/climate-change-action-plan-florida-reef-tract-2010-2015
6) Andros Coral Reef - Length: 124 miles (200 km) - Location: The Bahamas between the islands of Andros and Nassau
Pic Credit: http://coralreefs.net/the-great-andros-barrier-reef-the-enigmatic-isle/
7) Zhongsha Islands - Length: 50 miles (81 km) - Location: South China Sea
Pic Credit: http://english.cri.cn/6566/2008/12/18/902s434121.htm
8) Saya Del Malha - Area: 15,444 square miles (40,000 sq km) - Location: Indian Ocean
Pic Credit: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/910540882074140674
9) Great Chagos Bank - Area: 4,633 square miles (12,000 sq km) - Location: The Maldives
Pic Credit: http://coralreefs.net/great-chagos-archipelago-the-cleanest-bluest-water-in-the-world/
10) Reed Bank - Area: 3,423 square miles (8,866 sq km) - Location: The South China Sea, claimed by the Philippines
Pic Credit: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/910915790251753473