The world's largest artificial diving reef and habitat for marine life was recently created by sinking a decommissioned us warship off the Florida coast.

The 300-metre us Navy warship, the uss Oriskany, which served in the Korean and Vietnam wars, was commissioned in 1950.

It took 226 kg of explosives to sink the 32,000-metric tonne vessel, reports bbc . Experts had predicted the ship would take five hours to sink but in the end it went down in just 30 minutes.

The sinking was made possible after months of discussion with environment groups before the us $19-million operation, which involved stripping the ship of toxic materials, was given the go-ahead. The reef is expected to bring in around us $92 million a year by way of tourist trade.