Mainz [Germany], August 27: Near the Fijian Islands in the south-western Pacific, the ocean has not been as warm in the past 600 years as it is today, according to a study published in Science Advances journal.
The data is "further evidence of the unprecedented warming of the western Pacific," according to the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany, which was involved in the research, dpa reported.
The view into the climatic past was made possible by the reef-building honeycomb coral (Diploastrea heliopora) which can live for a very long time and grows on average between 3 to 6 millimetres per year. Climate changes of past centuries are stored in the skeletons of such corals, according to the JGU.
Specifically, the researchers looked at a core about 2 metres long from such a coral, focusing on the ratio of strontium to calcium. The age of each layer was determined using the Uranium-Thorium dating method, thanks to the Institute of Geosciences at Mainz University.
Basically, scientists examine how much the uranium isotopes contained have decayed radioactively and transformed into thorium, which enables them to draw conclusions about age.
The evaluation of coral data from 1370 to 1997, supplemented by 26 years of water temperature measurements, showed that 2022 was the warmest year in the Pacific region since 1370
Source: Emirates News Agency