The largest coral in the world is discovered near the Solomon Islands

Scientists said Thursday they had found the coral largest in the world near the Solomon Islands, in the Pacific, a discovery “brimming with life and color.”

The coral is so immense that researchers sailing through the crystal-clear waters of the Solomon Archipelago initially believed they had found a sunken ship.

“Just when we thought there was nothing left to discover on planet Earth, we found a massive coral with almost a billion polypsbrimming with life and color,” declared marine ecologist Enric Sala, originally from Spain.

The structure, which has been growing for about 300 years, is made up of a “complex network” of tiny coral polyps.

It is different from a coral reef, which is made up of several different colonies of coral explained Sala, a National Geographic explorer.

With 34 meters wide and 32 meters long, the megacoral is three times larger than the previous record holder a choral called “Big Momma” in American Samoa.

The new coral was found on the southeastern tip of the Solomon Islands, an area known as the Three Sisters.

It was detected by a National Geographic team that was carrying out a scientific expedition in the area.

Rising ocean temperatures and acidity have drained life from corals in many tropical Pacific waters.including Australia’s famous Great Barrier Reef.

But this new finding offers a small glimmer of hope, according to the research team.