SHIPWRECKS - HURRICANES - AND TREE RINGS : WHAT WE CAN LEARN ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

WASHINGTON POST - ANCIENT SHIPWRECKS - CLIMATE CHANGE

EXCERPT:

To study shipwrecks, the new research drew upon historical records of no less than 657 wrecks of Spanish ships in the Caribbean between 1495 and 1825 — a period that started just after Columbus’s first expedition to the new world. All of the storms that were inferred to have wrecked these ships occurred prior to the earliest year in today’s official Atlantic hurricane database, which is kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and begins in 1851.... But to strengthen the analysis, the researchers also cross-referenced the shipwreck history with data from the rings of pine trees growing in the Florida Keys, which can also provide a record of hurricane history.