Along a coastline in New Zealand, kelp seems to contain a genetic record of the planet’s geological upheaval.

In a paper published last week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers say that the genes of bull kelp along the shore of the South Island of New Zealand bear marks of an earthquake that occurred 800 years ago, when part of the ocean floor rose upward and wiped out its inhabitants.

The scientists took samples of kelp along a 60-mile stretch of that shore.

Bull kelp that lived along a 15-mile stretch that had been forced into the air during that long-ago earthquake were distinct from their neighbors of the same species on either side, whose homes had long lain undisturbed.

When wandering bull kelps from farther down the coast arrived at the wasteland left by the earthquake, they most likely proliferated swiftly, dominating the entire footprint of the uplifted area within a few decades, before any others could get in.

Waters said.

The fact that the new kelp has barely mixed with its neighbors 800 years after the earthquake is particularly interesting — it suggests that a “winner takes all” effect is going on, where the first individuals on the scene can maintain their dominance for centuries, the researchers wrote.