November’s Greatest Sex Show on Earth

An aerial photograph of the Big Blue Hole - a stunning part of the Belize Coral Barrier Reef.The Coral Barrier Reef is Only in the Mood Once a Year.

Aawww!!  What?  Not what you were expecting?  What are you like…  Anyway, it made you look!  😉

This great sex show, the greatest sex show on Earth, happens every year, around about now, in November.  When the tides are just right and the Moon is full, the Coral Reef literally erupts!   

 

Massive Nature Marathon Sex Session at Australia Great Barrier Reef 2013

It has been described as the greatest sex show on earth.  And it’s happening right now in Australia.  Coral on the Great Barrier Reef is spawning.

Stretching a full 2000 kilometres in length and made up of 3000 individual reef systems and hundreds of islands, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is an icon, one of the natural wonders of the World, and the largest living structure on our planet that is visible from space.  The coral in the world’s biggest reef system is only in the mood once a year, when it releases eggs and sperm into the sea for external fertilisation.

Coral spawning only happens when environmental conditions are perfect, when the sea temperature is above 26 Celsius and there is a full moon, which slows tidal flow and means the spawn is less likely to be washed out to sea.

To catch a glimpse of the natural phenomenon, you need patience and just a little bit of luck, Julia Calixto reports:

 

Coral Spawning on the Great Barrier Reef 2009 with TUSA dive by Stuart Ireland.

Beautiful images of coral spawning!!

 

Coral Sea Dreaming TV: Coral Spawning

Watch Monty Hall’s Programme:

Marine biologist and explorer Monty Halls offers a guide to the secrets of the reef – how it was created, how it works, the intricate relationships between its inhabitants and how climate change and other factors might shape its future.  Using the latest specialist filming and visual techniques, the series captures the magic of the reef as it has never been seen before.

 

The Belize Coral Barrier Reef – An Amazing Natural Formation

While Australia’s Great Barrier Reef grabs all the headlines, the longest coral barrier reef in the western hemisphere is a close contender in spectacle and richness of marine life.

The Belize Barrier Reef runs for 250 kilometres off the coast of Belize (Central America).  The Belize Coral Barrier Reef is home to the astonishing Great Blue Hole (featured in top picture), a vast and perfectly round limestone cavity and one of the most spectacular diving sites in the world.

The Great Blue Hole is a large submarine sinkhole located near the centre of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll about 70 kilometres away from the mainland and Belize City.  The hole is circular in shape, over 300 metres (984 ft) in diameter and 124 metres (407 ft) deep, and was formed during several episodes of quaternary glaciation when sea levels were much lower.  As the ocean rose again, the cave was flooded.  The chasm runs 145 metres under sea level and it is filled with strange stalactite formations that get more and more impressive the deeper you dive.  The Great Blue Hole is a part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, a World Heritage Site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

No doubt it’s also a great place to witness the greatest sex show on Earth…

 

And what does it all have to do with Physics?  Well, you and I must have another talk about the Moon and the tides it causes on Earth, and the energy involved, and the gravity, and the whole World around us… very soon.  Because everything is connected.  Do stay tuned!  😉

 

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