The Great Barrier Reef -- the largest living structure on Earth -- is dying as a result of El Nino and climate change.

This week, scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies completed an extensive survey of the iconic reef and found that 93 percent has been impacted by the most severe coral bleaching event on record.

"Weve never seen anything like this scale of bleaching before," Terry Hughes, convenor of the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce, said in a statement. "In the northern Great Barrier Reef, its like 10 cyclones have come ashore all at once."

Coral bleaching is a phenomenon in which stressed corals expel algae and turn white. If not given time to recover, bleached corals can perish.