Paleotempestology

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Paleotempestology is the study of past tropical cyclone activity by means of geological proxies. Examples of proxies include overwash deposits preserved in the sediments of coastal lakes and marshes, microfossils such as foraminifera, pollen, diatoms, dinoflagellates, phytoliths contained in coastal sediments, wave-generated or flood-generated sedimentary structures or deposits (called tempestites) in marine or lagoonal sediments, storm wave deposited coral shingle, shell, sand and shell and pure sand shore parallel ridges, oxygen isotopic ratios of hurricane rainfall in shallow-water corals, speleothems (cave formations), and tree rings. The method of using overwash deposits preserved in coastal lake and marsh sediments is adopted from earlier studies of paleotsunami deposits. Both storms and tsunamis leave very similar if not identical sedimentary deposits in coastal lakes and marshes and differentiating between the two in a sedimentary record can be difficult.

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[edit] Etymology

The term paleotempestology was coined by Prof. Kerry Emanuel of MIT.

[edit] History

The first studies to examine prehistoric records of tropical cyclones occurred in Australia and the South Pacific during the late 1970s and early 1980s. These studies examined multiple shore parallel ridges of coral shingle or sand and marine shells. As many as 50 ridges can be deposited at a site with each representing a past severe tropical cyclone over the previous 6,000 years. Tsunamis are not known to deposit multiple sedimentary ridges and therefore these features can be more easily attributed to a past storm at any given site.

[edit] Speleothems and tree rings

Isotope studies in speleothems and tree rings offers a means by which higher resolution records of long-term tropical cyclone histories can be attained. Unlike the isotope records, the sedimentary records are too coarse in their resolution to register quasi-cyclic activity at decadal to centennial scales. These higher resolution records therefore offer a means for possibly differentiating between the natural variability of tropical cyclone behaviour and the effects of anthropogenically induced global climate change. Recent studies with stalagmites in Belize shows that events can be determined on a week-by-week basis. (Frappier et al.)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Printed media

  • Baines, G. B. K and McLean, R. F. (1976). Sequential studies of hurricane deposit evolution at Funafuti Atoll. Marine Geology; 21: M1-M8.
  • Chappell, J.; Chivas, A; Rhodes, E. and Wallensky, E. (1983). Holocene palaeo-environmental changes, central to north Great Barrier Reef inner zone. BMR Journ. Aust. Geol and Geophys; 8: 223-235.
  • Chenoweth, M. (2003). The 18th-century climate of Jamaica - Derived from the journals of Thomas Thistlewood, 1750-1786. Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. 93. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 153 pp.
  • Donnelly, J. P. and T. Webb III (2004) Back-barrier Sedimentary Records of Intense Hurricane Landfalls in the Northeast United States, in R. J. Murnane and K.-b. Liu (Eds.), Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future, pp. 58-98. Columbia University Press, New York.
  • Donnelly, J. P. (2005). Evidence of past intense tropical cyclones from backbarrier salt pond sediments: a case study from Isla de Culebrita, Puerto Rico, USA: J. Coastal Res., I42, 201-210.
  • Donnelly, J.P., and Woodruff, J.D. (2007). Intense hurricane activity over the past 5,000 years controlled by El Nino and the West African monsoon: Nature, v. 447, p. 465-468
  • Elsner, J. B. and A. Birol Kara (1999) Hurricanes of the North Atlantic: Climate and Society, pp 49-51, 378. Oxford University Press, New York.
  • Frappier, A. B., D. Sahagian, S. J. Carpenter, L. A. González, and B. Frappier (2007). A stalagmite proxy record of recent tropical cyclone events, Geology, v7, n. 2: 111–114; doi: 10.1130/G23145A.
  • Liu, K.-b. (2007). Paleotempestology. In: Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science (ed. S. Elias). Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1978-1986.
  • Liu, K.-b. (2004) Paleotempestology: Principles, Methods, and Examples from Gulf Coast Lake Sediments, in R. J. Murnane and K.-b. Liu (Eds.), Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future, pp. 13-57. Columbia University Press, New York.
  • Liu, K.-b., C. M. Shen, and K. S. Louie (2001). A 1,000-year history of typhoon landfalls in guangdong, southern China, reconstructed from Chinese historical documentary records. Ann. Assoc. Am. Geog. 91, 453-464.
  • Miller, D. L., C. I. Mora, H. D. Grissino-Mayer, M. E. Uhle, and Z. Sharp. (2006). Tree-ring isotope records of tropical cyclone activity. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 103, 14294-14297.
  • Nott, J., J. Haig, H. Neil, and D. Gillieson (2007). Greater frequency variability of landfalling tropical cyclones at centennial compared to seasonal and decadal scales. Earth Plan. Sci. Lett. 255 (3-4), 367-372.
  • Nott, J.F. (2004). Palaeotempestology – a review and implications for risk assessment. Environment International, 30, 433-447.
  • Rhodes, E.G.; Polach, H.A.; Thom, B.G.; Wilson, S.R. (1980). Age structure of Holocene coastal sediments, Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. Radiocarbon; 22: 718-727.

[edit] External links