Name: The secrets I find on the mysterious ocean floor
Uploaded: 2016-03-09T16:04:17Z
Duration: 11 min 11 s
Description: Hundreds of meters below the surface of the ocean, Laura Robinson probes the steep slopes of massive undersea mountains. She's on the hunt for thousand-year-old corals that she can test in a nuclear reactor to discover how the ocean changes over time. By studying the history of the earth, Robinson hopes to find clues of what might happen in the future.

Laura Robinson: The secrets I find on the mysterious ocean floor

The secrets I find on the mysterious ocean floor

Hundreds of meters below the surface of the ocean, Laura Robinson probes the steep slopes of massive undersea mountains. She's on the hunt for thousand-year-old corals that she can test in a nuclear reactor to discover how the ocean changes over time. By studying the history of the earth, Robinson hopes to find clues of what might happen in the future.

The chemistry of deep-sea coral fossils holds a record of Earth's changing climate, including dramatic shifts thousands of years ago. Some corals, found kilometers below the ocean surface, can live for thousands of years and record seasonal changes even in the deep. By analyzing radioactive elements like uranium in these fossils, scientists discover when and how the oceans released or stored carbon. These findings help explain how the planet moved from ice age conditions to the warmer climate seen today.