One of the greatest mass deaths of coral ever recorded occurred when islands were lifted more than a metre out of the water in the 8.7-magnitude earthquake of March 2005 off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, scientists said on Thursday.

The earthquake, which was linked to the December 26 2004 tremblor that triggered the massive Indian Ocean tsunami, uplifted Simeulue and Banyak by 1.2m, exposing up to 40,000 sq km of reefs, the report says.