MOUNT Pinatubo鈥檚 eruption in the Philippines in 1991 killed corals thousands of kilometres away in the Gulf of Eilat, say Israeli scientists. The finding suggests that corals might serve as sensitive biological monitors of changes in climate.
The corals died after the volcano threw up debris that blocked sunlight and caused a cold winter throughout the Middle East. This disturbed the usually even temperature of the Red Sea. Surface waters cooled and dropped far down stirring up nutrients to nearly half the gulf鈥檚 1800 metres depth. These fed a tremendous algal bloom that choked the corals to death.
In last week鈥檚 Nature the researchers say that fossil corals could reveal past volcanic activity around the world and yearly temperature changes in the region.
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