The formation of an island made mostly from sand on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could have prevented the creation and eventual success of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
K’gari (also known as Fraser Island) is the world’s largest sand-island, measuring approximately 640 sq miles (nearly 1700 km), just off Queensland’s southeast coast.
It forms an informal base to the large reef that lies to its north, alongside the Cooloola Sand Mass.
Researchers think that the ocean currents carried sand northwards along the coast to form this terrestrial ‘launching platform’ would have brought the sand right to where it now lies.
Quartz-rich Sands can be used to smother carbonate rich sediments. This is essential for coral development.
Experts argue that without K’gari, the sediment would have been pushed off the continental shelf into the deep.
It has a complicated origin story. It formed just half a mile long ago, after corals had grown in the appropriate conditions.
K’gari could be the missing puzzle piece that researchers have been trying to find. The island’s 123-kilometer-long island is dated by analysis of the sand dunes. This suggests that the land mass was formed between 1.2 million and 0.7million years ago. It also indicates that the Great Barrier Reef was only a few hundred thousands years before it became a reality.
Research suggests that the island’s presence likely deflected northward winds, which provided the opportunity for the southern and central sections of the great barrier Reef to grow thousands of kilometers of coral.
K’gari, Cooloola and other sand-silver deposits from the south are what gave rise to K’gari.
Researchers suspect that sediment from all over the globe was exposed during periods of ice growth and fluctuating sea level. This sediment was then caught in the currents during successive periods of ice melting and rising oceans.
This probably meant that the east coast of Australia was able to follow the continental shelf for a long time with soil and sand.
However, a slope on the south coast of Queensland is the ideal place for sediment accumulation, and this is exactly where K’gari or Cooloola can be found.
Coral reefs are absent from the area south of the sand mass.
Researchers believe that the strength of the northward currents in this area is too strong. K’gari & Cooloola disperse long distances, stopping quartz-rich sands smothering developing islands.
“Before Fraser Island was developed, longshore northward transport would have interacted with coral reef development at the southern and central parts of the country.” [Great Barrier Reef]Researchers Send an email.
These ideas are supported by sediment records taken from the southern Great Barrier Reef. The sediment records from the southern Great Barrier Reef support this idea.
It is important to continue research on the reefs further north. However, at least two thirds of the Great Barrier Reef seem to owe their existence to a wall made of sand to its south.
According to the authors, “The development Fraser Island significantly reduced the sediment supply to North Island’s continental shelf.” Argument.
“This allowed for widespread coral reef growth in the central Great Barrier Reef, and was a necessary condition for its development.”
The study was published by Nature Geoscience.
