Microfossils show promise in prospecting climate history
31st Oct 2005, 14:40 GMT
Has global warming flipped a switch and returned us to a hurricane regime unseen for 1000 years? An analysis of 6,000 years of sediment layers taken from a back-barrier marsh in South Carolina shows a record of storm washovers that could only come from major hurricanes - identified by the presence of foraminifera shells originating in ancient off-shore deposits. The result tentatively shows a long record of elevated hurricane activity prior to the last millennium.