Coral "archeology"

Ursula Keuper-Bennett howzit at turtles.org
Sun Oct 10 13:09:05 EDT 1999


Dear Coral Researchers,

In a terrestrial environment it's possible to dig down through various soil
layers and detect disturbances, either natural or human-made.  A good example
would be finding a midden in an Indian archeological site.

What I'm wondering is this.  Let's say a ship ran aground and took out half a
section of reef --just pummelled and crushed the corals to smithereens.  And
then nothing else happened to this site.  New corals grew and prospered.

Could a coral researcher three hundred years from now digging down through that
reef, peeling back the coral years, would he be able to detect evidence of that
earlier ship grounding/destruction?

My gut feelings is yes, he should be able to.  I'm just not sure.

Thanks
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