They discover a reef higher than the Empire State 1:00
(CNN) -
A new "huge" reef has been discovered on Australia's Great Barrier Reef measuring 500 meters, taller than some of the tallest skyscrapers in the world.
Scientists found the separate reef - the first to be discovered in more than 120 years - in waters off north Queensland during an expedition aboard the Falkor research ship, the ocean research organization Schmidt Ocean Institute announced on Monday.
The reef was first discovered on October 20, when scientists completed an underwater mapping of the bottom of the northern Great Barrier Reef.
At 500 meters high, it is taller than the Empire State Building (381 meters to the top floor), the Sydney Tower (305 meters) and the Petronas Towers (451.9 meters).
The team explored the reef on Sunday with an underwater robot named SuBastian, and broadcast live images of the exploration.
Experts say that the base of the "blade-shaped" reef is 1.5 kilometers wide and rises 500 meters to its shallow 40 meters below the ocean's surface.
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There are seven other separate tall reefs in the area, including the reef on Raine Island, an important nesting site for green turtles.
The separate reef is one of several on the Great Barrier Reef.
It is the first discovered in 120 years.
'Explore like never before' the coral reef
Robin Beaman, who led the expedition, said he was "shocked" by the discovery.
"Not only 3D mapping the reef in detail, but also visually seeing this discovery with SuBastian is amazing," he said in a statement.
"This unexpected discovery affirms that we continue to find unknown structures and new species in our ocean," Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, said in a statement.
“The state of our knowledge about what is in the ocean has long been so limited.
Thanks to new technologies that function like our eyes, ears and hands in the depths of the ocean, we have the ability to explore like never before.
New ocean landscapes are opening up to us that reveal the ecosystems and the diverse forms of life that share the planet with us.
The Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef in the world, covers almost 345,000 square km.
It is home to more than 1,500 species of fish, 411 species of hard coral, and dozens of other species.
But the reef faces a crisis.
Recent studies have shown that it has lost 50% of its coral populations in the last three decades.
Climate change is a key factor in the alteration of reefs.
Coral ReefGreat Barrier Reef