Divers discover vast hole in the Great Barrier Reef

It is rumoured that we have only explored roughly 20% of the water on earth, meaning that in all honesty, we have no idea what may be existing deep in our oceans - which is pretty terrifying. Despite brilliant programmes such as Blue Planet that aim to inform us about the strange life that goes on underwater, we're still only scratching the surface when it comes to our explorations - and this story proves just that. The Great Barrier Reef is one of those phenomenons that you just have to see at some point in your life, and probably features on the majority of people's bucket lists. Sadly, as with most natural things in this world; humans are doing all that they can to destroy the reef. Over the past two years, the corals of the reef have undergone two excessive bleaching events, raising concerns about the capacity for the reef to survive under global-warming. Bleaching refers to what happens to corals when sea surface temperatures rise. As the temperatures heighten, corals expel the algae that nourish them leaving them to bleach and turn white. While some corals recover, a vast amount of them die and become covered by a different type of algae. However, while the Great Barrier Reef has undoubtedly been hit hard by global warming, it looks like there may be a bit of hope on the horizon. [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba24Sj9HYwQ/]] Lying 200 kilometres from Daydream Island in the north east of Australia, a mysterious Blue Hole exists in the Great Barrier Reef. Little is known about the hole, but thanks to Johnny Gaskell, a marine biologist from Whitsundays, more information about the hole has now been discovered. Taking to his Instagram, Johnny shared a photo of the hole, saying:

Johnny and his team of divers went 20 meters down into the Blue Hole before hitting sediment that sloped towards the center. The diver added: "It was great to see big healthy coral colonies. Stay tuned for video footage of the coral within..." The discovery of healthy coral will come as a major surprise to some experts, and could signal a potential future for the reef. A blue hole is a sinkhole that extends deep below sea level. The formations of the holes came about during the ice age, when sea levels were as much as 100 - 200 meters lower than they are now. Over time, glacial runoff began to dissolve the limestone ground, forming huge sinkholes. As the glaciers of the ice age began to melt, the holes were filled with water, creating the blue holes we see today. It's great to see that there is signs of a recovery in the Great Barrier Reef and hopefully we will see the bleaching start to slow down. Although, with global warming becoming a more prominent force in society, don't be surprised if we see more major bleaching incidents.