Reconstruction of Prehistoric Landfall Frequencies of Catastrophic Hurricanes in Northwestern Florida from Lake Sediment Records
Abstract
Sediment cores from Western Lake provide a 7000-yr record of coastal environmental changes and catastrophic hurricane landfalls along the Gulf Coast of the Florida Panhandle. Using Hurricane Opal as a modern analog, we infer that overwash sand layers occurring near the center of the lake were caused by catastrophic hurricanes of category 4 or 5 intensity. Few catastrophic hurricanes struck the Western Lake area during two quiescent periods 3400-5000 and 0-1000 14C yr B.P. The landfall probabilities increased dramatically to ca. 0.5% per yr during an "hyperactive" period from 1000-3400 14C yr B.P., especially in the first millennium A.D. The millennial-scale variability in catastrophic hurricane landfalls along the Gulf Coast is probably controlled by shifts in the position of the jet stream and the Bermuda High.
- Publication:
-
Quaternary Research
- Pub Date:
- September 2000
- DOI:
- 10.1006/qres.2000.2166
- Bibcode:
- 2000QuRes..54..238L
- Keywords:
-
- hurricanes;
- paleotempestology;
- coastal lakes;
- lake sediments;
- overwash events;
- storm deposits;
- climate variability;
- Gulf of Mexico