Cited research: Geophys. Res. Lett. doi:10.1029/2010GL043124 (2010)

Major hurricanes can churn up sea-floor sediments at depths of up to 90 metres, which can trigger underwater mudslides, and damage oil and gas pipelines.

Hemantha Wijesekera and his colleagues at the Naval Research Laboratory of the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi analysed a rare set of data collected from instruments that measure current and wave properties in the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Ivan passed directly overhead in 2004.

Using a wave–current model to calculate friction and sea-floor stresses, the team found that these stresses correlated with wind speed. Extreme surface waves and elevated currents produced damaging forces at the sea floor during the storm and for about one week after Hurricane Ivan's passage.

The Gulf of Mexico, which provides almost 30% of the United States' oil supply, hosts some 50,000 kilometres of sea-floor pipelines. Hurricane-induced stress should be considered in the engineering design of pipelines in shallow shelf regions, the researchers suggest. Q.S.