sediment

In the past half a million years, activity in the Rift Valley has pushed up these layers of sediment with the footprints, exposing this fossil evidence, Feibel said.

Frozen methane hydrates are trapped inside subsea permafrost and mixed with sediments across the deep ocean floor.

They hope to estimate minimum ages by directly dating the sediment around these artifacts.

In a previous collaboration with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Curtin research team obtained a unique chemical 'fingerprint' of the spilled oil, which enabled them to confirm its presence in the mangrove sediments.

Toxic chemicals and heavy metals have been detected that could be leaching into the sediment — something local officials are not equipped to clean up on their own.