Australian scientists have joined an international group looking millions of years into the past to better predict the future.

The group has just announced the conclusion of a two-month research expedition off the coast of Western Australia, where they have been drilling into the seabed to gain valuable insight into our climate future.

The $20 million International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Indonesian Throughflow Expedition 356 was the first ever expedition of the entire western coast of Australia to examine climatic conditions of the past five million years.

Expedition 356 has spent the past two months traversing coastal waters between Fremantle and Darwin in a bid to reveal the untold secrets of the Indonesian Throughflow, the Leeuwin Current and the Australian monsoon.

Prior to this trip, similar records of Australia’s climate history dated back less than half a million years, but the expedition has now extended that record to five million years at most sites.

Unexpectedly, the team was able to glean 12 million and 50 million years worth of data at two particular locations.

With help from professional drill operators, the team took samples by coring up to one kilometre beneath the seabed at seven different sites.

More than 100 international scientists and crew conducted the study from aboard the high-tech JOIDES Resolution research vessel.

JOIDES Resolution is the world’s most prolific scientific drillship.

Formerly an oil exploration vessel, it has now completed over 150 scientific expeditions since 1985.

Five scientists from the Australia and New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC) made up the crew, which also included researchers from Norway, Austria, USA, Germany, Brazil, China, Sweden, Japan, the UK and the Netherlands.

“The history of Australia’s climate is strongly linked to oceanic conditions off its coastline. By studying ancient marine sediment, we can see how these currents have changed through earth’s history, and how that affected the climate of Australia,” said University of Melbourne palaeoceanographer Associate Professor Stephen Gallagher.

Associate Professor Gallagher says the layers beneath the seabed contain rock and shells that reveal crucial information about how environmental conditions have changed over time, much like how tree rings tell a story about the climate of a forest.

He says his team of researchers had an excellent recovery rate during the expedition, having sampled over five kilometres of sediment core. Some samples were up to 50 million years old.

A preliminary scientific report will be published within two months, something climate scientists and conservationists around the world will eagerly await.

“We have found sediments and microfossils related to ancient coral reefs, beaches, deep and shallow water and even areas which were once above sea level,” Associate Professor Gallagher said.