Undersea Mountains

Kaunana Seamount, NW Hawai'i (credit: NOAA)

Laura Robinson at Bristol University in the UK studies massive undersea mountains, or seamounts. She documents the geo-chemical processes that govern oceanic csystems on timelines that range from the present day back through thousands of years. Using uranium isotopes and radiocarbon dating techniques Robinson analyzes ancient corals to discover how the ocean and the climate has changed over time.

                 Ancient seamount corals (credit: Laura Robinson/TED)

By studying the history embedded in ancient marine corals on seamounts, Robinson has gained clues to what happened over many millennia of time. During a TED presentation she shared some of the mysterious creatures, corals, and other life that has been discovered and how studies of these deep sea mountains may help understand future changes to marine environments. WHB

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