Cynthia Barnett, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Environmental Journalist-in-Residence and senior lecturer, is the author of “Where is Malaysian Airlines Flight 370? A Simple Barnacle Could Help Lead Us to the Missing Plane” published in National Geographic on Aug. 23.

The story focuses on how shell chemistry from barnacles washed up on wreckage from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 is providing clues that could help find the plane, which vanished nearly a decade ago. By studying the shells of washed-up barnacles, scientists have developed new methods for reconstructing the drift of ocean debris that may help narrow the search.

Barnett reports that the latest temperature and chemistry tools are among the most precise yet for using shell chemistry to retrace unknown paths of crash debris, ocean plastics, dead bodies, and other flotsam carrying Lepas anatifera, known as goose, gooseneck or stalked barnacles. These barnacles have attached themselves to a flaperon from a wing on the missing plane.

“Knowing precise sea-surface temperatures and times the barnacles drifted on the flaperon could narrow the search area by an order of magnitude. Oceanographers have temperature histories from satellite-tracked drift buoys throughout the world’s oceans—and temperatures change distinctly along the search corridor known as the ‘7^th arc,’ where the plane is believed to have run out of fuel,” she writes.

She adds. “A buzz of science news stories about the barnacles followed the flaperon’s discovery, speculating the hitchhikers would soon help narrow the search area. But barnacle sclerochronology is an exceedingly esoteric science. And French authorities, who oversee Réunion as a territory, limited access to the flaperon and its crustacean clues.”

“The research, which blends the zoology and shell geochemistry with ocean drift modeling and geospatial statistics, still has a way to go before scientists can mark an ‘X’ on a map of the Indian Ocean,” writes Barnett.

Barnett began reporting on shell chemistry for her book, The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans.

Posted: August 24, 2023
Category: College News, Science Communication News
Tagged as: Cynthia Barnett, Goose Barnacles, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, National Geographic, Shell Chemistry, The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans