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

Reef, which extends for 310 miles from Florida to South Carolina and at some points is 68 miles wide, called breathtaking in scale'

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.