The Natural Radiochemical and Growth Records in Contemporary Hermatypic Corals from the Atlantic and Caribbean

Authors

Richard E. Dodge, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
John T. ThomsonFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

ISSN

0012-821X

Publication Date

10-1974

Keywords

Coral reefs, Jamaica

Abstract

The skeletal banding observed in vertical cross-sections of two species of coral, Montastrea annularis from Jamaica and Diploria labrynthiformis from Bermuda, has been confirmed to be annual by ingrowth of ²²⁸Th towards radioactive equilibrium with ²²⁸Ra taken up from seawater. In addition the Bermuda coral is shown to have incorporated ²¹⁰Pb at essentially constant specific activity over at least the last thirty years.

The individual annual patterns of growth banding in a suite of specimens of D. Labrynthiformis from Bermuda are shown to be correlative. The mass of CaCO₃ accumulated each year is positively correlated with the band width for the corresponding year.

DOI

10.1016/0012-821X(74)90121-6

Volume

23

Issue

3

First Page

313

Last Page

322

Comments

©1974 Published by Elsevier B.V.

NSUWorks Citation

Dodge, Richard E., and John Thomson. 1974. "The natural radiochemical and growth records in contemporary hermatypic corals from the Atlantic and Caribbean." Earth and Planetary Science Letters no. 23 (3):313-322. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0012-821X(74)90121-6.