A University of South Florida geoscientist led an international team of researchers to create a new method that can reconstruct the drift path and origin of debris from flight MH370, an aircraft that went missing over the Indian Ocean in 2014 with 239 passengers.
Barnacles and other shelled marine invertebrates grow their shells daily, producing internal layers similar to tree rings. The chemistry of each layer is determined by temperature of the surrounding water at the time the layer was formed., Herbert's research team did a growth experiment with live barnacles to read their chemistry and for the first time, unlocked temperature records from the shells of barnacles.
After the experiment, they applied the successful method to small barnacles from MH370. With help from barnacle experts and oceanographers at the National University of Ireland Galway, they combined the barnacles' water temperature records with oceanographic modeling and successfully generated a partial drift reconstruction.
Up to this point, the search for MH370 spanned several thousands of miles along a north-south corridor deemed"The Seventh Arc," where investigators believe the plane could have glided after running out of fuel. Because ocean temperatures can change rapidly along the arc, Herbert says this method could reveal precisely where the plane is.
Barnacles growing in a controlled environment as part of a growth experiment for the study. Credit: University of South Florida
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