Largest known deep-sea coral reef mapped off US Atlantic coast

An alfonsino fish swims above a thicket of coral in the center of the Blake plateau, off the south-eastern coast of the US. Photograph: NOAA Ocean Exploration via AP

Scientists have mapped the largest known deep-sea coral reef, stretching hundreds of miles off the US Atlantic coast.

While researchers have known since the 1960s that coral is present off the Atlantic, the reef’s size remained a mystery until new underwater mapping technology made it possible to construct 3D images of the ocean floor.