Is the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines MH370 expected to be located? A research team proposed the barnacle tracing method for studying | chemistry | ocean | wreckage | methods | aircraft | Herbert | barnacles
An international research team has proposed a new method to reconstruct the drift path and source of the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. On August 23rd, the relevant results were published in the Progress of the American Geophysical Society.
In 2014, MH370 flight went missing over the Indian Ocean with 239 passengers and crew members on board. Associate Professor Gregory Herbert at the University of South Florida in the United States was inspired by photos of airplane wreckage that washed up on the coast of Reunion Island in Africa one year after the crash.
"The flaps and ailerons of the plane were covered with barnacles, and as soon as I saw them, I immediately sent an email to the search investigators because I knew the geochemical characteristics of these barnacle shells could provide clues for finding the crash site," Herbert said.
As an evolutionary and conservation biologist, Herbert primarily studies marine systems, with a particular focus on crusty marine invertebrates such as oysters, snails, and barnacles. Over the past 20 years, Herbert has created and improved a method to extract ocean temperatures stored in chemical components of invertebrate shells. Herbert previously used this method to determine the age and extinction risk of giant horse snails, and investigated the environmental conditions during the disappearance of the Jamestown colony in North America.
The outer shell of barnacles and other shelled marine invertebrates grows every day, creating an inner layer similar to tree rings. The chemical composition of each layer is determined by the temperature of the surrounding seawater at the time of its formation. In this study, the Herbert team conducted a growth experiment using live barnacles to read their chemical composition and, for the first time, unlocked temperature records from the outer shell of barnacles.
After the experiment, they applied this method to the barnacle attached to MH370. With the help of barnacle experts and oceanographers from the University of Galway in Ireland, they combined the ocean temperature records of barnacles with oceanographic models and successfully reconstructed some drift paths.
Herbert said, "Unfortunately, the largest and oldest barnacles have not been studied yet, but through this study, we have demonstrated that this method can be used for barnacles that adhere to debris shortly after a plane crash, rebuilding a complete drift path and ultimately finding the crash site."
So far, the search for MH370 flight has extended for thousands of miles along a north-south corridor known as the "seventh arc". Investigators believe that this corridor may be the route for planes to taxi after running out of fuel. Herbert stated that since ocean temperatures can rapidly change along arcs, this method can accurately reveal the position of aircraft.
Herbert revealed that French scientist Joseph Poupin was one of the earliest biologists to inspect the flaps and ailerons of airplanes. His conclusion was that the largest barnacle attached to the wreckage may have been old enough to parasitize on the wreckage shortly after the plane crashed, and was very close to the actual crash site.
"If that's the case, the temperature recorded in these barnacles can help investigators narrow down their search range," Herbert said. Even if the plane is not on an arc, studying the oldest and largest barnacles can still narrow down the search range.
"This plane went missing over 9 years ago, and we are introducing a new method to help restore search work that was suspended in January 2017, which may bring some comfort to the families of passengers on the missing plane," said Nassar Al Qattan, a PhD in geochemistry at the University of South Florida who helped analyze Tenghu
Related paper information: https://doi.org/10.1029/2023AV000915
