JUL 12, 2015

This is What Coral Looks Like Under the World's Strongest X-ray

WRITTEN BY: Anthony Bouchard


The world's underwater coral reefs are incredibly beautiful, but have you ever wondered what makes up coral, and more importantly, what it looks like under the world's strongest X-ray?

Under a powerful high-resolution X-ray, it's possible to see weather and climate changes that have been recorded in the coral over hundreds of years. Patterns allow scientists to unravel history right from these beautiful underwater works of art.

These bits of coral under the ocean's water, especially the larger and older ones, have a lot of history packed inside of time, effectively making them just like underwater time capsules.

Scientists can look for clues in coral that can tell the story of weather history in the location of the coral that dates back earlier than a time when we started actually recording weather in detail.