Getting to the Core

Maxwell Besser, a guest student from Northeastern University working in the Coastal Systems Group Lab, examines a sediment core from the Bahamas that he has been analyzing for signs of past hurricanes. By sieving samples of sediment from the core, Besser and his colleagues can determine when and where hurricanes have occurred. The patterns that emerge from cores taken from the Atlantic and Caribbean are helping create a timeline that can be used to link predicted changes in Atlantic storms with potential human impacts. (Photo by Gwen Schanker, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)