Source: Science Alert
February 22, 2011

"Limestone terraces - the relics of the Great Barrier Reef of the past - could give hints on a "tipping point" that could trigger catastrophic climate change in the greenhouse in future, according to new research from the University of Sydney.

An international team of scientists jointly led by Dr Jody Webster, of the University of Sydney, and Dr Yusuke Yokoyama, of the University of Tokyo, is analysing sediment cores drilled by the research ship, the Greatship Maya, across the Great Barrier Reef last year.

The scientists are using the reef as a record of sea level fluctuations and climate change from the peak of the last Ice Age, about 21,000 years ago, to the first two millennia of the current warm Holocene epoch, which started about 12,000 years ago."

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