Typhoon Haiyan had a historic impact on the Philippines. This rapid-response project, led by a faculty member at the University of Southern Mississippi, will use sediment cores in various sites in the Philippines, particularly locations with the highest associated wind speeds from the event and sites preserving a longer-term geologic record, to put this extreme event into a historic and geologic context. Numerical models will be used to back calculate wind speeds in order to compare Typhoon Haiyan to past events. Overall, this work will contribute to a better understanding of the frequency and magnitude of extreme storms in this region.
This work has strong societal relevance, with the potential to place Typhoon Haiyan and similar tropical cyclones in a long term climate context. The results of the study may contribute to the rebuilding process and influence future management and policy decisions. A Filipino collaborator and his student will play a essential roles in the field work and in the interpretation of the results. Two graduate students will be involved in the research.
This project is jointly supported by the Division of Ocean Sciences, International Science and Engineering, and the EPSCoR Program.
