The Great Barrier Reef

Vitali · 155581. Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:34 am

Q: What's the only LIVING thing on earth the naked eye can see from space?

A: (Just heard on the BBC World Service Radio - 11 March): "The Great Barrier Reef is!

A good GI question, it seems...

Gray · 155991. Tue Mar 13, 2007 5:39 am

I think we may have used this before. We had some fun pointing out that a coral reef isn't a living thing - it's a huge colony.

But if we accept that, then there are also huge algal blooms that are visible from space, so the BBC was a little misleading, I think.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060614120030.htm
http://cics.umd.edu/~chrisb/algal_www.html