Coral Archives

Researchers Paul Henderson (left) and Luis Vasquez-Bedoya collect coral samples from a large reef in the waters off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Corals build their skeletons over time from calcium carbonate and other substances in seawater. WHOI scientists carefully analyze such samples to obtain information about past climate conditions, the evolution of marine life, possible future sea level rises, and the flow of groundwater from land into the coastal ocean.(Photo courtesy of Meagan Gonneea, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)