Sediments at the bottom of the ocean can offer a window into the past, indicating environmental conditions not just from the sea but washed in from terrestrial runoff, as well as preserving the flora and fauna of the time. Scientists access this knowledge by taking exploration cruises to core the seabed, bringing these cores to the surface for analysis in laboratories.

One such expedition, reported in The Holocene, recovered cores from the Gulf of Saint Eufemia, on the west coast of Calabria, Italy. Knowing the size of the basin from which the cores are obtained is important as it helps to identify the spatial distribution of where sediments and inclusions, such as pollen and spores, have been derived;