Med Archives
Corals are astonishingly accurate thermometers: the temperature of the seawater in which they grew can be reconstructed from the chemical composition of the growth bands of their calcium carbonate skeleton.
Coral species, such as Porites of the Pacific Ocean, have been recording the climatic history of the Earth for several centuries. For the first time, an international team of paleoclimatologists, headed by ISPRA scientists, has applied to Mediterranean corals the same studies already carried out on tropical corals, revealing a new and unexpected climate archive. This is the story of their scientific journey.