Fascinating Opportunity to look at Global Warming & Cooling over the last 40,000 years, Deep Ocean

[RollWithIt]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/03/03/eod.popsci.species/index.html

At 3,000 meters below sea level, the crew saw thousands of sea spiders. At 3,500, millions of specimens of a new, purple-spotted sea anemone. At 4,000 meters, a single never-before-seen carnivorous sea squirt with a funnel-shaped body that snapped shut like a Venus flytrap around any shrimp unfortunate enough to brush against it.

Back on land, the three new species (the anemone, the sea squirt, and a new kind of barnacle) have drawn the most attention, but it's the team's coral collection, some 10,000 pieces of it, that can tell us about the history of our climate and, perhaps, its future.

A coral skeleton acts as a tape recorder of its environment. As it grows, the coral's chemical structure (specifically the weight of its oxygen molecules) varies depending on the temperature of the water around it. And, because the coral's uranium decays into thorium over time, it is conveniently datable.

By charting different corals' ages and oxygen weights, researchers can map the ocean's changing temperature. During the coming months, expedition scientists will compare 40,000 years of oceanic and atmospheric records.