Analysis of these histories yields clues to the dynamics of sea-level variation and the climate changes which can cause them. On rare occassions, the sea can be indescribably serene. The promise of days like the one pictured here are one of the prime motivations for me to pursue research at sea. Though the days are long and often tedious, few of my colleagues ever have the opportunity to savor these moments. With a good ship and the camaraderie of the crew, life doesn't get much better than this.
Divers can work in shallow water to obtain cores into sediments and rocks.
Rocks deposited in shallow waters record the geologic effects of rising and falling seas. Work like this can take many hours to accomplish underwater. The longest core we retrieved for this work was just over 9 meters - it took over 12 hours to get it using 3 teams of divers. 1997 has been declared the International Year of the Reef by Dr. R.N. Ginsburg at the University of Miami. Coral reefs worldwide are in trouble - corals are dying in unprecedented numbers, fish on reefs are being overharvested, introduced pollutants promote rapid growth of algae which are able to out compete corals for space on the reef.