Environment

Quake Shatters Centuries-Old Coral Reef off Taiwan’s Green Island

Published
Updated

By Yuan Tuan/Irene Lin

Open in App

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake in late August off Green Island has caused catastrophic structural damage to Heimao Reef, a famous 500-year-old mushroom-shaped coral formation. Scuba divers discovered severe fractures across the massive hump coral structure. Marine researchers from Academia Sinica warn that while natural disasters cannot be prevented, human stressors such as dragging boat anchors, reckless diving practices and untreated island sewage pose an even greater long-term threat to Taiwan’s fragile coral ecosystems. To learn more about Green Island’s Heimao Reef, watch this episode of TaiwanPlus' Let's Go Diving! on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tHPziZ02KBw