Scientists have found a new way to track debris from the 2014 MH370 plane crash using barnacle shells.
Ha lives in a controlled environment in a research experiment. Photo: University of South Florida
According to new research published in the journal AGU Advances , analyzing the chemical composition of the shells of barnacles living on debris from the MH370 plane crash could provide clues about where the crash occurred, Newsweek reported on August 23.
This method could help find the location of the wreckage of Flight MH370. This was a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that disappeared on March 8, 2014. Experts believe the plane crashed into the Indian Ocean, but to this day, the remains of the Boeing 777 carrying 239 people have not been found.
Barnacles were found on debris from MH370 that washed up on Reunion Island, off the coast of Africa, a year after the crash. “The flaperon was covered in barnacles, and as soon as I saw them, I immediately started emailing investigators because I knew that geochemical analysis of their shells could provide clues to the crash site,” said study co-author Gregory Herbert, associate professor of marine ecology at the University of South Florida.
A French soldier takes a photo of debris on Reunion Island on August 11, 2015. A wing part was found on the island in late July 2015 and confirmed to belong to the Boeing 777 that went missing on March 8, 2014. Photo: Richard Bouhet/AFP
Barnacles are tiny crustaceans that live on the sides of ships, rocks, and even whales. Herbert has studied barnacle shells for decades and has figured out how to determine the ocean temperature where they lived by using chemical signals. Sea creatures with shells grow their shells every day, adding layers like tree rings, the chemical makeup of each layer determined by the water temperature at the time it formed.
In the new study, the team applied this method to barnacles collected from the MH370 debris. They combined the barnacle measurements with oceanographic models to create a reconstruction that shows how far the debris might have drifted after the crash. However, the barnacles the team collected were not living on the debris immediately after the crash, but had attached themselves more recently. So they were not able to get a complete picture.
“Unfortunately, the largest and oldest barnacles are not yet available for analysis. But in our new study, we have shown that this method can be applied to barnacles that were attached to debris immediately after the accident, allowing us to reconstruct the complete drift path and trace the crash site,” said Herbert.
"French scientist Joseph Poupin, one of the first biologists to study the flaperon, concluded that the largest barnacles attached to it could be old enough to have lived on the debris shortly after the crash, very close to the crash site where the plane's remains rest. If so, the temperatures recorded in the shells could help investigators narrow down the search area," he added.
Thu Thao (According to Newsweek )
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