Deep-water corals are widely distributed in Earth’s oceans, with large reefs/beds in the far North and far South Atlantic, as well as in areas with warmer water such as along the Florida coast.

Scientists have discovered single polyps as small as a grain of rice, tree-like coral colonies that tower as tall as 10 m (35 ft), and massive coral reefs that stretch for 40 km (25 mi). But the ocean is a vast realm. There may be even bigger deep-sea corals out there still to be discovered.

Deep-sea corals, like their warm-water cousins, are actually colonies of small animals that build a common skeleton, which grows into many shapes and colors. Unlike tropical reefs, they live from 150 feet to more than 10,000 feet below sea level, where sunlight is dim to nonexistent.

Unlike shallow-water coral reefs, which are limited to warm tropical waters, deep-sea corals are found throughout the world’s oceans, from tropical to polar regions. Like their shallow counterparts, deep-sea reefs are created by stony corals that form large geological structures over thousands of years.

Jan 19, 2024 · The world’s largest tropical coral reef system, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, stretches for about 1,430 miles (2,301 kilometers). Sowers said it’s possible that larger deep-sea reefs will be discovered in the future since only about 25% of the world’s ocean floor has been mapped in high-resolution.

A huge effort involving 23 submersible dives and 31 multibeam sonar mapping surveys have detailed a massive reef system in frigid waters between 200 to 1,000 meters (around 650 to 3,300 feet) deep, including identifying an estimated 83,908 individual coral mounds.

Jan 17, 2024 · Covering 6.4 million acres, an area larger than Vermont, an underwater seascape of cold-water coral mounds offshore the southeast United States coast has been deemed the largest deep-sea coral reef habitat discovered to date, according to a paper recently published in the scientific journal Geomatics.

Jan 13, 2025 · These corals, referred to as ‘deep-sea’ or ‘cold-water’ corals, from complex skeletal structures that provide shelter for vast numbers of associated fish and invertebrates in the otherwise sparsely populated deep sea. Deep-sea coral reefs can take tens of thousands of years to grow, and many deep-sea corals can live for centuries.

Deep Sea Reefs. It may be the last place you’d expect to find corals—up to 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the ocean’s surface where the water is icy cold and completely dark. Yet believe it or not, lush coral gardens thrive here. In fact, there are as many known species of deep-sea corals (also known as cold-water corals) as shallow-water species.

This curriculum takes students into the deep sea to identify the soft corals, hard corals, invertebrates and fish found in these communities and to investigate the unique biology of deep-sea corals. Learn the threats these animals face and what we can do to help protect them.