Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Many who have visited here say that no photograph, even the highest quality, or a film shot with the help of the best equipment, is not able to fully convey the local beauty and the prevailing atmosphere of silence.

Under the water, at a depth of more than ten meters, the corals glow with fantastic colors - you can count a few tones of green, purple, red flowers, as well as black, yellow, brown, mustard and white.

Scientists say that the Australian reef is not more than 400 thousand years old, and the most intensive growth occurred when the water level of the World Ocean increased. Many sites have formed over the past two centuries, with young reefs located on the old under water at a depth of 15 to 20 meters.

By itself, the Great Barrier Reef or the National Reef Park is so large that it makes about ten percent of the area of all coral reefs of the planet. The appearance of the park is due to coral polyps (there are more than 400 species of the most diverse color) - a tiny animal with tentacles, the size of a rice seed. They exist together with unicellular algae, which are hidden in the middle of their body.

It is algae with the help of photosynthesis that provide polyps with organic substances (for example, calcium, which forms the skeleton of microorganisms). Since coral polyps live only in colonies, together they manage to create a huge limestone frame on which marine animals and algae of different species "register", thus securing the polyps into a single whole. In order for the reef park to acquire a specific shape and size, not one thousand generations of reef-builders should be replaced. Fortunately, the natural conditions near the eastern coast of Australia are allowed.

The Great Barrier Reef not only grows constantly, but it also collapses all the time - in addition to being constantly bitten by animals and fish, it is also diluted by water and corrodes acids. Over time, almost all the corals break up into the sand. Therefore, the layer visible to us, which is on the surface, is constantly changing.

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