Deep Sea corals grow very slowly and hence contain a record of changing oceanographic conditions over time. This summer Theresa Allinger '11 is conducting a geochemical analysis of these deep water corals from Antarctica that grew at 1500 feet below the surface of the Ross Sea.

The samples Allinger is drilling out will be sent to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for radiocarbon age dating. Isotopes of carbon and oxygen will be analyzed here at Hamilton in the Geosciences Mass Spectrometer Facility. The project is supported by the National Science Foundation under an Office of Polar Programs grant to Eugene Domack, the J.W. Johnson Family Professor of Geosciences.