This 507 Year Old Clam Might Just Save the Planet

Bad news: we have a climate data problem. Good news: this clam may help us fix it.

Here’s the problem, we need centuries of ocean data to understand the AMOC, but modern sensors only give us ~20 years. The solution could be clam shells.

Clam shells have rings that act like oceanic tree rings. Each growth band = annual ocean conditions (temperature, salinity, current strength). By analyzing shells from clams that lived 1300+ years, scientists created the longest continuous ocean record in exis