Fijian Coral Reveals the Pacific Ocean Was As Warm 600 Years Ago
An international team of climate scientists have used a 627-year coral record from Fiji to reveal [notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com] unprecedented insights into ocean temperatures and climate variability across the Pacific Ocean since 1370. The new coral record shows that the local ocean temperature was warm between 1380 and 1553, comparable to the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Ocean temperatures influence coral growth, and thus corals preserve records of past environmental conditions over centuries. This 627-year coral record (1370–1997) provides the longest continuous sea surface temperature reconstruction to date. The new record is based on a geochemical analysis of the Sr/Ca ratio in coral—a proxy for past ocean temperature. The data shows that natural climate variability is greater than previously believed, implying that a part of the recent warming is due to natural causes.