Associate Professor Gregory Herbert, who led a team of researchers from University of South Florida (USF), says the geochemistry of barnacle shells attached to debris from the aircraft could provide clues to the crash location.

Over the last two decades, Herbert refined a method to extract ocean temperatures stored in the chemistry of invertebrate shells. The method was previously used to determine the ages and extinction risk of giant horse conches and investigate the environmental circumstances of early US colonies.

Barnacles and other shelled marine invertebrates grow their shells daily, producing internal layers similar to tree rings. The chemistry of each layer is determined by temperature of the surrounding water at the time the layer was formed.

Herbert’s research team did a growth experiment with live barnacles to read their chemistry unlocked temperature records from the shells of barnacles.

After the experiment, they applied the successful method...