Stormquake: How Old Seismograms Could Reveal the Future of Hurricanes

Hurricanes are growing threats in the age of climate change, but incomplete records hinder our understanding of how they evolve. Graduating Harvard Griffin GSAS student Thomas Lee tries to bridge this gap, looking at ground motion—microseisms—recorded when storm waves crash onshore. Lee's research confirms the reliability of this data—gathered since the beginning of the 20th century—for identifying otherwise unrecorded 20th-century hurricanes. It’s also yielded an algorithm that predicts microseisms from ocean storms. Leveraging seismic wave history to uncover the secrets of hurricanes past and present, Lee lays the foundation for a new field of historical environmental seismology

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation.