Mass coral bleaching event

1997–1998 • Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and parts of the far eastern and western Pacific Ocean

"The coral bleaching of 1997–1998, is the most geographically widespread ever recorded, and probably the most severe in recorded history." —Clive Wilkinson, Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network "There has been unprecedented bleaching in coral reefs throughout the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and parts of the far eastern and western Pacific Ocean. This bleaching has been in parallel with big swings in the global climate with a severe El Niño event during late-1997 and early-1998, which switched over to a strong La Niña in mid-1998."

Clive Wilkinson (editor), "Status of the Coral Reefs of the World: 1998," Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Cape Ferguson, Queensland, and Dampier, Western Australia: 1998).

Image: Vardhan Patankar, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons