Aragonite lattice disorder in the primary skeletons of Hawaiian fossil Porites spp. corals

Raman spectroscopy was used to estimate disorder around the carbonate group in the mineral lattice in primary (unaltered) coral aragonite in a series of Hawaiian fossil corals representing a reef terrace accreted from ~45 to 15 ky. The full width half maxima (FWHM) of the aragonite Raman v1 band is a proxy of the saturation state of the media from which the aragonite skeleton precipitates and is used to infer changes in the biomineralisation environment of marine calcifiers. Data were collected to research the formation conditions of coral skeletons over a period of sea level and atmospheric CO2 change. Data were collected by Nicola Allison and Alice Sinclair.