A giant rock as big as 20,000 football fields may save the Great Barrier Reef

• Two sailors in the Pacific ocean came across a giant volcanic rock floating in the Pacific ocean. The rock is moving towards Australia.
• The volcanic rock covers 150km of an area over the water's surface, which is equivalent to the Manhattan city. It is also the same size as 20,000 football fields.
  
• The volcanic rock is so big that NASA's space satellite can capture its image from space.
  
• The pumice raft could probably rescue the struggling Great Barrier Reef by supporting marine life.
  

Two sailors in the Pacific ocean came across a giant volcanic rock, which could be as big as Manhattan And, it is floating towards Australia, reported CNN.

The pumice raft could probably rescue the struggling Great Barrier Reef by supporting marine life. Global warming has killed half of the reef in the last few years.

The volcanic rock covers 150km of an area over the water's surface, which is equivalent to the Manhattan city. It is also the same size as 20,000 football fields. A pumice raft is a rock full of holes and cavities, and is formed after an eruption in the volcano.

The rubble slick went as far as we could see: Sailors

The Australian couple sailing across the Pacific were the first to notice the giant rock on August 9.

"We entered a total rock rubble slick made up of pumice stones from marble to basketball size. The rubble slick went as far as we could see in the moonlight and with our spotlight," Michael Hoult and Larissa Brill wrote online on August 16.

The same day, NASA Earth Observatory revealed there's a mass of floating rock.

The volcanic rock is so big that NASA's space satellite can capture its image from space. Several other sailors have reported the same formation.



Australia's dying Great Barrier Reef

The volcanic rock will help boosting the marine life of Australia's coral reef.

"A lot of life... can attach themselves to the pumice and be transported thousands of kms away. So it's a way to renew ecosystems somewhere, but it also can introduce invasive species," Dr Jutzeler told BBC.

The biggest coral reef on earth, The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, is finding it tough to recover from the habitat destruction brought about by rising ocean temperatures.

"The number of new corals settling on the Great Barrier Reef declined by 89% following the unprecedented loss of adult corals from global warming in 2016 and 2017," said Terry Hughes, lead author of the study.
See also:
The Great Barrier Reef is struggling to revive from climate change-led destruction
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