Hurricane hunter

Jon Woodruff, a graduate of the WHOI/MIT Joint Program, looks for bits of grit and shell in sediment samples that he cores from lagoons and marshes (including this marsh, on Cape Cod), because they are evidence of past hurricanes. Lacking historic written records beyond a few hundred years, Woodruff and his colleagues look deep into sediments to see past patterns of hurricane intensity and frequency-information that could prove useful for predicting future hurricanes.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)