Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Satellite image of part of the Great Barrier Reef adjacent to the Queensland coastal areas of Airlie Beach and Mackay.
Location	Off the east coast of the Queensland mainland, Australia
Criteria	Natural: vii, viii, ix, x
Reference	154
Inscription	1981 (5th Session)
Area	34,870,000 ha
Website	www.gbrmpa.gov.au
Coordinates	18°17′10″S 147°42′00″E / 18.28611°S 147.70000°E / -18.28611; 147.70000
Center of the Great Barrier Reef Show map of Queensland Great Barrier Reef (Australia) Show map of Australia

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef. It is near the coast of Queensland, Australia. It is made up of nearly 2900 coral reefs and over 600 islands.^[1] It is 327,800 km² big and 2600 km long. It has been listed an important World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The Great Barrier Reef is the biggest structure made by living things. It can be seen from outer space.^[2] The Reefs are threatened.^[3] The biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef today is coral bleaching caused by high sea water temperatures as a result of global warming.^[4] During 2016, the worst die-off ever recorded occurred, due to seas warming around the Great Barrier Reef. Two-thirds of a 700-km (435 miles) stretch of coral in nine months were killed.^[5]

1. ↑ Cite error: The named reference CRCage was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
2. ↑ Bellfield, Sarah (February 8, 2002). "Great Barrier Reef: no buried treasure". Geoscience Australia. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
3. ↑ Explorer Pleads to Save the Great Barrier Reef May 1, 2014 issue Scientific American
4. ↑ "CNN: Warm seas threaten Great Barrier Reef". CNN.
5. ↑ Tom Westbrook. "Biggest-Ever Coral Die-Off Reported on Australia's Great Barrier Reef; Warm seas have "essentially cooked" hundreds of kilometers of the landmark, a surveyor says". Scientific American. Retrieved 7 December 2016.