Email Print Share
March 1, 2010

Hurricane Sleuth


When Geologist Jeff Donnelly of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) hunts for hurricanes, he does it safely at ground level, or just slightly below. He is even able to do it without having to encounter so much as a drop of rain or a gust of wind. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Donnelly leads a team that studies long term global hurricane patterns. They travel to coastal areas where a hurricane’s storm surge has washed over beaches and left sediment deposits, such as sand, in areas where there normally wouldn’t be any. By drilling and studying cores from different points around the Atlantic Ocean, he and his team have been able to paint a picture of long term global hurricane activity. They’ve unearthed some interesting findings about past hurricane activity which might give us a hint about what we can expect in the future.

Credit: National Science Foundation


Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.

Videos credited to the National Science Foundation, an agency of the U.S. Government, may be distributed freely. However, some materials within the videos may be copyrighted. If you would like to use portions of NSF-produced programs in another product, please contact the Video Team in the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs at the National Science Foundation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.