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International conference to focus on ancient Atlantic hurricanes

When hurricane experts converge at USC later this month for a three-day conference, they will more likely discuss the Great Hurricane of 1752 than any of the recent hurricanes that have wracked the East Coast.

That's because the "Workshop on Atlantic Basin Paleohurricane Reconstructions from High Resolution Records" March 25-27 is focused on hurricanes that have swept through the Atlantic Ocean before the 20th century.

Just as scientists are studying the Pacific Ocean for evidence of past El Ni–o events, other researchers are looking for clues about past hurricanes in the Atlantic.

"We'll discuss about how we might integrate all of the various data available to devise a model for studying past hurricanes," said Cary Mock, an assistant professor in geography who has organized the conference, which is expected to bring experts from England, Spain, Argentina, Sweden, and the United States. "We'll be talking about hurricane activity from the past several hundred years to several thousand years ago."

To find evidence of ancient hurricanes, paleohurricane experts study travel logs from merchant and whaling ships, naval logbooks, newspaper archives, personal diaries, lake sediments, tree rings, and coral growth. In South Carolina, archives of the South Carolina Gazette newspaper contain articles of hurricanes as far back as the early 1700s.

Similar accounts of hurricanes are plentiful from other newspapers, such as in Boston and New York. "Archives in London, England, and Seville, Spain, are great sources, too, because the British and Spaniards had such large sailing fleets, adding additional information of hurricanes over the open ocean," Mock said. Taken together, the data can provide a nearly conclusive record of past hurricane activity.

For the year 1838, for instance, Mock has found evidence of four hurricanes that heavily affected the South Carolina coast. The South Carolina Gazette reported hordes of ships washed ashore in Charleston after the Great Hurricane of 1752, indicating a possible 18-foot storm surge.

Ancient hurricanes command more than scholarly interest: city planners along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico want to factor into their emergency planning the severity of hurricane activity in the past. Mock hopes the USC conference will begin to lay the groundwork for more interdisciplinary analysis of ancient hurricane activity that will provide a clearer picture of the Atlantic's stormy past.