The current Great Barrier Reef is 8,000 years old, having regrown after the last ice age. There's been a reef there for 500,000 years, but it's been destroyed m

The current Great Barrier Reef is 8,000 years old, having regrown after the last ice age. There's been a reef there for 500,000 years, but it's been destroyed multiple times. Of course, the time scales involved are quite long. Recovery is thought to have taken hundreds of years, if not thousands. And the process only starts after conditions improve. See Also: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/great-barrier-reef-has-had-five-near-death-experiences-past-30000-years https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/great-barrier-reef-h...