What is the GBR and where is it located?
Stretching for 1,429 miles over an area of approximately 133,000 square miles , the Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world. The reef is located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, in the Coral Sea.
What are the main features of the Great Barrier Reef?
Some key facts about the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park:
- covers 344,400 km2 in area.
- includes the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem.
- includes some 3000 coral reefs, 600 continental islands, 300 coral cays and about 150 inshore mangrove islands.
Where are barrier reefs located?
Most reefs are located between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, in the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Corals are also found farther from the equator in places where warm currents flow out of the tropics, such as in Florida and southern Japan.
In which continent is the Great Barrier Reef located?
Oceania
Great Barrier Reef/Continent
What is the Great Barrier Reef Kids facts?
The Great Barrier Reef is larger than the entire country of Italy put together. Astronauts can see the Great Barrier Reef from the moon. The Great Barrier Reef is the size of about 70 million football fields! Recycling is a great way to help places like the Great Barrier Reef stay beautiful and its fish stay healthy.
Why is the Great Barrier Reef facts?
Great Barrier Reef Facts & Figures: The Great Barrier Reef is classed as the single largest living organism in the world, spanning a total distance of over 2300km from the Torres Strait in the North to Bundaberg in the South. The Great Barrier Reef is comprised of over 900 individual islands.
Where are coral reefs typically located?
Why are coral reefs located where they are?
LOCATION: Coral reefs are generally found in clear, tropical oceans. Coral reefs form in waters from the surface to about 150 feet (45 meters) deep because they need sunlight to survive. Reefs usually develop in areas that have a lot of wave action because the waves bring in food, nutrients and oxygen to the reef.
Why is the Great Barrier Reef where it is?
It contains the world’s largest collection of coral reefs, with 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusc. It also holds great scientific interest as the habitat of species such as the dugong (‘sea cow’) and the large green turtle, which are threatened with extinction.
How big is the Great Barrier Reef in kilometres?
Fact: The Great Barrier Reef has over 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres. Fact: The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space. Fact: The Great Barrier Reef is greater in size than Tasmania and Victoria combined. Fact: The Great Barrier Reef is greater in size than the United Kingdom, Holland and Switzerland combined.
Is the Great Barrier Reef a living thing?
The Great Barrier Reef is an extremely ancient, enormous host of living things, composed of living coral growing on dead coral dating back perhaps as much as twenty million years. Learn more about the History of the Great Barrier Reef.
Where are the fringing reefs in the Great Barrier Reef?
Fringing reefs, which attach to the mainland, are infrequent. Most occur in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef and are attached to high islands such as the Whitsunday Islands. Lagoonal reefs are found in the southern Great Barrier Reef, and further north, off the coast of Princess Charlotte Bay.
How many species of birds live in the Great Barrier Reef?
Fact: Six species of sea turtles come to the reef to breed. Fact: 215 species of birds (including 22 species of seabirds and 32 species of shorebirds) visit the reef or nest or roost on the islands. Fact: Seventeen species of sea snake live on the Great Barrier Reef.
