AIMS Research - Information on images

Variability in the El Niño Southern Oscillation through a glacial-interglacial cycle

Information on images provided to the press relating to the paper published in the journal ‘SCIENCE’

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Image 1: Underwater photograph of a diver coring a living massive coral in Papua New Guinea. Large living coral colonies such as this one can yield continuous climate records going back up to a few hundred years. For our study, we collected and analysed cores from living corals to provide a calibration between the coral record and the instrumental record of El Niño over the past century. We then collected, analysed and dated cores from ancient ‘fossil’ corals of the same type that are now sub-aerially exposed on land (Images 2-4). These ancient corals ranged in age from 2,000 to 130,000 years in age, and each coral provided a 20-100 year-long ‘window’ into El Niño climate variability during its lifespan. [Photo: Sandy Tudhope]

Uplifted coral reef terraces of the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. In this region, the land is moving upwards at a rate of ~2m/1000 years. Consequently, fringing coral reefs along the coast get uplifted, and become sub-aerially exposed. These ancient reefs now form a succession of ‘steps’, or terraces, in the coastal landscape, with the youngest reefs closest to the coast, and the oldest reefs at higher elevation further back from the coast.

Image 2: The oldest reefs in this image are about 250,000 years old and are seen as terraces towards the top-left of the photo. For our study, we collected ancient corals from reefs up to 130,000 years old, seen here as the terraces from the present-day coast up to the top of the first very distinctive set of cliffs near the middle of the photo. [Photo: Sandy Tudhope]

Image 3: A modern barrier reef and lagoon are in the foreground. The Finisterre Mountain range is in the background. [Photo: Sandy Tudhope]

Image 4: Walking up through the ancient reef terraces. The scientists are walking on top of relatively young reefs (about 10,000 years old), and are going towards older reefs. The ridge at the top of the photograph is the reef crest of the reef that grew ~125,000 years ago during the Last Interglacial. The cliffs and terraces between the scientists and the uppermost ridge are former reefs which grew during the last glacial period, when the Earth was several degrees colder than today. Massive corals collected from these ancient reefs formed the basis of our study. [Photo: Sandy Tudhope]