Amazon River Secret: Coral Reef Network Revealed In World's Largest River

The Amazon river was revealed to be the home of an unexpected coral reef network that stretches to 600 miles. The chance discovery was made by a team of marine scientists, who were hoping to collect species samples from the mouth of the Amazon River.

CNN reports that the Amazon River discovery was unexpected because of rivers normally do not lend a healthy environment to sustain coral reefs. However one of the marine scientists, Rodrigo Moura from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, recalled a published study in the 1970s.

The study in question mentioned reef fish presence along the Amazon's continental shelf. Team leader Patricia Yager, from the University of Georgia, relayed the team relying on soundwaves and seafloor samples to determine the location that the old study indicated.

Huge coral reef discovered in the muddy Amazon River: https://t.co/xvjo9IXgpN pic.twitter.com/N5cm4x37Ad

— Nat Geo Photography (@NatGeoPhotos) 24 April 2016

The reef that the team discovered was filled with a wide array of coral and fish species, sponges and algae. The 1200-kilometer reef displays changing marine life the farther away from sunlight the reef extends.

A reef ecosystem unlike any seen before has just been discovered at the mouth of the Amazon River >> https://t.co/l56hcf7Vmx — Discovery (@Discovery) April 23, 2016

"But as you move north, many of those [species] become less abundant, and the reef transitions to sponges and other reef builders that are likely growing on the food that the river plume delivers," Yager related. "So the two systems are intricately linked."

Live Science reports that although the reef in the Amazon river was widely secret for many years, it is now becoming endangered. Oil search projects and the changing constitution of the ocean into which the Amazon river feeds are among the factors that contribute to the endangerment of the reef.