Intense hurricane activity over the past 5,000 years controlled by El Niño and the West African monsoon

Jeffrey P. Donnelly () and Jonathan D. Woodruff
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Jeffrey P. Donnelly: Coastal Systems Group, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 360 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
Jonathan D. Woodruff: Coastal Systems Group, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 360 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA

Nature, 2007, vol. 447, issue 7143, 465-468

Abstract: Windy lagoon The instrumental record of hurricanes is comparatively short, one reason why the factors controlling hurricane activity remain poorly understood. Jeffrey Donnelly and Jonathan Woodruff have overcome this problem by constructing a long-term record of hurricane activity in the western tropical North Atlantic Ocean. The storms associated with intense hurricanes that strike the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico deposit layers of coarse, sandy material in a lagoon on the island. Sediment cores from the lagoon have been used to work out the frequency of intense hurricane strikes over the past 5,000 years. The record shows striking similarities to records of El Niño events and rainfall in tropical Africa, suggesting that changes in the El Niño/Southern Oscillation and the strength of the West African monsoon have played an important role in controlling the frequency of intense hurricanes in the tropical North Atlantic.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05834

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