Environment
Expect More Superstorms Like Sandy, Warn Scientists
Damaging storms in the U.S. Northeast are likely to become “more frequent and more powerful.”
What can an ancient stalagmite plucked from a cavern in southern Belize tell us about future weather?
Well, in the case of “Stalagmite YOK-G,” sourced from the Mayan artifact-littered interior of Yok Balum Cave, it whispers to the United States to be wary of a possible era of damaging hurricanes. That’s the word from scientists at the U.K.’s Durham University, who subjected the mineralized prong to isotopic analysis for historical traces of rainfall. Climate change is driving hurricane tracks northward, they conclude in Scientific Reports, putting them on course to strike with greater frequency and power in northeast U.S. cities like New York and Boston.