Largest deep-sea coral reef to date mapped by scientists off US Atlantic coast

An alfonsino fish swims above a thicket of Lophelia pertusa coral during a dive on a cold water coral mound in the center of the Blake Plateau off the south-eastern coast of the US in June 2019 (NOAA Ocean Exploration via AP)

Scientists have mapped the largest coral reef deep in the ocean, stretching hundreds of miles off the US Atlantic coast.

While researchers have known since the 1960s that some coral were present off the Atlantic, the reef’s size remained a mystery until new underwater mapping technology made it possible to construct 3D images of the ocean floor.