Colonies (27) of massive Porites were collected in February 2001 from Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea. Eleven were from shallow water and 16 from deep water. Each colony was cut in half with a chain saw and at least two, 6-7 mm thick slices were cut vertically, close to the centre of each half-colony, air-dried and X-radiographed. Tracks across the slices were measured from the core edge to the centre using a densitometer - 3 for the shallow colonies, and 2 tracks for the deep water colonies.
For each colony, a unique identifier, the longitude and latitude, collection date, and depth (shallow 10m) was given. Densitometric track measurements recorded distance from the edge (cm), minimum and maximum density (g.cm-3); and luminescence.
A number of variables were calculated from the densitometric track measurements:
Annual minimum and maximum density (g.cm-3)
Annual density range from minimum to maximum density (g.cm-3)
Average annual density - average of minimum and maximum densities (g.cm-3)
Annual luminescence extension, and minimum, maximum, and average luminescence
Annual extension - the distance between adjacent high density maxima (mm)
Annual calcification or mass of CaCO3 deposited per unit area per year (g.cm-²) - the product of average annual density and annual extension.
