The geological legacy of Hurricane Irene: Implications for the fidelity of the paleo-storm record

[摘要] Paleotempestology has become more contentious in recent yearsbecause the exact nature of storm deposition and preservation is still poorlyunderstood. Whereas historical records of hurricanes along the Atlantic coastare limited to the past 300 years, and reliable instrumental records extendback only half that length of time, proxy records taken from coastalsedimentary archives offer the potential to extend this record several thousandyears, offering better statistical constraints on hurricane prediction. Twoprimary proxies have been the most studied during the last decade: sedimentarycriteria and microfossils. In this study, we used a microfossil-basedproxy—displaced marine foraminifers—to investigate a 1500-year paleostormrecord of Onslow Bay, North Carolina, USA, and to compare marsh sediments andforaminifers pre- and post–Hurricane Irene, which made landfall in Onslow Bayon 27 August 2011. We found fewer hurricanes archived in the 1500 years ofback-barrier marsh strata than have made landfall in Onslow Bay since 1950.This absence of preserved hurricane deposits, as well as the lack of adefinitive signature from Hurricane Irene, suggests that caution should be usedwith respect to the sensitivity of sedimentological or micropaleontologicalproxies in paleotempestology studies. We conclude that, at best, only directstrikes from intense storms are being preserved, and it is likely HurricaneIrene’s landfall will not be detectable in the future in the marginal-marinesediments from this region.

[学科分类] 地质学

[关键词] Fire safety;fatal fires;smoke alarms