Super-cyclones: Reef encounters

Our knowledge of the return period of tropical cyclones is limited, in part because of the short (100-year) instrumented record of cyclone intensity. But now a 5,000-year record of cyclone intensities at the Great Barrier Reef has been developed, based on dating ridges of coral detritus deposited above the normal high-tide level by cyclonic activity and numerical modelling of cyclone intensities. The record reveals a higher frequency of 'super-cyclones' that was suspected and suggests that these events may have had a major role in shaping the ecology of rainforests and coral reef communities.

High frequency of 'super-cyclones' along the Great Barrier Reef over the past 5,000 years
JONATHAN NOTT & MATTHEW HAYNE
Nature 413, 508-512 (4 October 2001)
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4 October 2001 table of contents