A pivotal history of Earth lies submerged beneath the Bering Sea. Today this frigid strait ... and then captured sediment cores from 36 different submerged sites, hundreds of feet underwater.

Organisms in the deep sea rely on gravity flows to lay down sediment and then make burrows beneath the seafloor, according to a new study.

Last year, researchers led by University of Alaska Fairbanks geologist Sarah Fowell set out on the research vessel Sikuliaq to extract cores of sediment from the floor of the Bering Sea.

Traces of organisms detected in sediments from 7.5 kilometers below the ocean surface reveal how organisms living in the deep sea are engineering their own environments. Analyses of sediment cores ...