9000 year old fossilized mangroves.

[mini696]

I just heard on the radio that some 9000 year old fossilized mangroves have been discovered under sections of the Great Barrier Reef.

Aparently they were covered when there was a massive change in climate, and were burried so quickly they didn't have a chance to decompose.

Anyone have more information on this?

Mick

[imagineer]

sorry no info but would be interested if you get more details

a friend of mine is a dendrochronologist and would I imagine be very keen for a core

let me knoe if you get any info
Cheers
Neil

[Gazza]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=43984

Rotting mangroves may hold climate key
18:10 AEDT Wed Feb 23 2005

Marine researchers believe ancient mangroves found adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef may hold the key to the speed of future sea level rises.
Dr Dan Alongi, a bio-geochemist and senior principal research scientist with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville, has unearthed 9,000-year-old mangroves in old river channels.
He believes the slowly decomposing trees, which still have leaves and branches, were swamped within a matter of decades when sea levels rose after the last ice age.
This was around 20 times faster than already thought.
Dr Alongi said he and other researchers from AIMS discovered the mangroves about two years ago in the Mulgrave River bed while taking core samples from mud in the coastal strip between Ingham and Cairns.
"There is a very sharp boundary between modern reef sediments and these mangrove deposits - which are basically the remnants of a 9,000-year-old mangrove forest," Dr Alongi said.
The findings, which Dr Alongi hoped to publish at the end of the year, may be an indicator of how quickly the climate could change in the future, he said.
Current commuter models suggest sea levels could rise anywhere from one to 10cm in the future.

"What I'm suggesting is the sea level rises in the past may have been a little bit faster than we may have suspected.
"What I'm suggesting from a biological time scale, is it (the rise) was fairly quick, perhaps a few decades.
"If it happened that rapidly in the past, it can happen that rapidly in the future."

[devocean]

No wonder Jacks are so hard to catch they have been round for 9000 years