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Digging into Past Climate

January 9, 2017

WHOI coastal geologist Jeff Donnelly extracts a tube of sediment from a Cape Cod marsh as participants in the Ocean Science Journalism Fellowship look on. Sediment in a marsh builds up in layers over time. By examining the composition of those layers, Donnelly can learn how past storm events altered the local coast and project how future changes to climate might affect it. He discussed climate change, hurricanes, and rising sea levels with actor Ian Somerhalder in Gathering Storm, a recent episode of National Geographic’s Years of Living Dangerously, and in a subsequent blog post. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)