Great Barrier Reef

The largest coral reef in the world, about 2,010 km (1,250 mi) long, off the northeast coast of Australia. The reef provides habitat for a wide range of marine life.

Great Barrier Reef

n (Placename) a coral reef in the Coral Sea, off the NE coast of Australia, extending for about 2000 km (1250 miles) from the Torres Strait along the coast of Queensland; the largest coral reef in the world

Great′ Bar′rier Reef`

n. a coral reef parallel to the coast of Queensland, in NE Australia. 1250 mi. (2010 km) long.

Thesaurus

Noun

Great Barrier Reef - the largest coral reef in the world; in the Coral Sea off the northeastern coast of AustraliaAustralia, Commonwealth of Australia - a nation occupying the whole of the Australian continent; Aboriginal tribes are thought to have migrated from southeastern Asia 20,000 years ago; first Europeans were British convicts sent there as a penal colonyAustralia - the smallest continent; between the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean

Translations

Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef,

largest complex of coral reef in the world, c.1,250 mi (2,000 km) long, in the Coral Sea, forming a natural breakwater for the coast of Queensland, NE Australia. Composed of more than 2,800 individual reefs, the Great Barrier Reef is separated from the mainland by a shallow lagoon from 10 to 100 mi (16–161 km) wide. In some places it is more than 400 ft (122 m) thick. The coral in the reef is threatened, however, by predation by the crown-of-thorns starfish, by damage caused by cyclones (hurricanes), by sedimentation caused by human activities, and by increasing and recurring coral bleaching due to climate change. Although the Australian government declared the reef a marine sanctuary in 1975, a 2012 study estimated that half of the coral had disappeared since 1985, with losses much greater in some areas than others. High water temperatures in the late 2010s damaged large areas, killing about a third of the reef's corals.

A major tourist attraction, the reef has many islets, coral gardens, and unusual marine life. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, more than 130,000 sq mi (340,000 sq km), encompasses most of the reefs and interreefal areas as well as the neighboring lagoon and a large section of the continental shelf. It is the largest UNESCO World Heritage Area. Known to Australian aborigines for thousands of years, the reef was discovered by the Western world when Capt. James CookCook, James,
1728–79, English explorer and navigator. The son of a Yorkshire agricultural laborer, he had little formal education. After an apprenticeship to a firm of shipowners at Whitby, he joined (1755) the royal navy and surveyed the St.
..... Click the link for more information. 's ship ran aground there in 1770; it was explored in the 19th cent. by Matthew FlindersFlinders, Matthew,
1774–1814, English naval captain and hydrographer, noted for his charting and coast surveys of Australia and Tasmania. From 1795 to 1799 and again from 1801 to 1803 he made valuable maps and charts of the water and coasts, circumnavigating both Australia
..... Click the link for more information. and Charles DarwinDarwin, Charles Robert,
1809–82, English naturalist, b. Shrewsbury; grandson of Erasmus Darwin and of Josiah Wedgwood. He firmly established the theory of organic evolution known as Darwinism.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See R. Endean, Australia's Great Barrier Reef (1983); I. McCalman, The Reef: A Passionate History (2014).

Great Barrier Reef

a coral reef in the Coral Sea, off the NE coast of Australia, extending for about 2000 km (1250 miles) from the Torres Strait along the coast of Queensland; the largest coral reef in the world

Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

Great′ Bar′rier Reef`

Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef,

Bibliography

Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

Words related to Great Barrier Reef

noun the largest coral reef in the world

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