Mysterious Reef From Millions of Years Ago Discovered in Vast Australian Desert
08 September 2022
By MICHELLE STARR
Satellite image showing the reef-like feature. (Lipar et al., Earth Surf. Process. Landf., 2022)
Once containing a vast, prehistoric ocean, the Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia is an extraordinary landscape. Now a scrubby desert on limestone bedrock, it's extremely flat and almost featureless, extending for over a thousand kilometers.
But a new discovery suggests that the vast, semi-arid expanse may not be as featureless as we thought.
Using satellite imagery, an international team of scientists led by geologist Matej Lipar of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts has found an ancient landform that appears to have once been a coral reef – or part of one.
Although we know limestone can form from calcium carbonate from shells and fossils, and even though the Nullarbor limestone is rich with coral and algae fossils, there are no primary features associated with the deposition of carbonate.
More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-reef-from-millions-of-years-ago-discovered-in-vast-australian-desert
