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Lucia Gualtieri, a postdoctoral researcher in geosciences at Princeton University, superimposed an image of the seismogram recording a tropical cyclone above a satellite image showing the storm moving across the northwest Pacific Ocean. Gualtieri and her colleagues have found a way to track the movement and intensity of typhoons and hurricanes by looking at seismic data, which has the potential to extend the global hurricane record by decades and allow a more definitive answer to the question, “Are hurricanes getting stronger?”

Climatologists are often asked, “Is climate change making hurricanes stronger?” but they can’t give a definitive answer because the global hurricane record only goes back to the dawn of the satellite era. But now, an intersection of disciplines — seismology, atmospheric sciences, and oceanography — offers an untapped data source: the continuous seismic record, which dates back to the early 20th century. An international team of researchers has found a new way to identify the movement and intensity of hurricanes, typhoons, and other tropical cyclones by tracking the way they shake the seafloor, as recorded on seismometers on islands and near the coast. After looking at 13 years of data from the northwest Pacific Ocean, they have found statistically significant correlations between seismic data and storms. Their work was published Feb. 15 in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The group of experts was assembled by Princeton University’s Lucia Gualtieri, a postdoctoral research associate in geosciences, and Salvatore Pascale, an associate research scholar in atmospheric and oceanic sciences. Most people associate seismology with earthquakes said Gualtieri, but the vast majority of the seismic record shows low-intensity movements from a different source: the oceans. “A seismogram is basically the movement of the ground. It records earthquakes because an earthquake makes the ground shake. But it also records all the tiny other movements,” from passing trains to hurricanes. “Typhoons show up very well in the record,” she said. Because there is no way to know when an earthquake will hit, seismometers run constantly, always poised to record an earthquake’s dramatic arrival. In between these earth-shaking events, they track the background rumbling of the planet. Until about 20 years ago, geophysicists dismissed this low-intensity rumbling as noise, Gualtieri said.

“What is noise? Noise is a signal we don’t understand,” said Pascale, who is also an associate research scientist at the National and Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

Just as astronomers have discovered that the static between radio stations gives us information about the cosmic background, seismologists have discovered that the low-level “noise” recorded by seismograms is the signature of wind-driven ocean storms, the cumulative effect of waves crashing on beaches all over the planet or colliding with each other in the open sea.

One ocean wave acting alone is not strong enough to generate a seismic signature at the frequencies she was examining, explained Gualtieri because typical ocean waves only affect the upper few feet of the sea. “The particle motion decays exponentially with depth, so at the seafloor, you don’t see anything,” she said. “The main mechanism to generate seismic abnormalities from a typhoon is to have two ocean waves interacting with each other.” When two waves collide, they generate vertical pressure that can reach the seafloor and jiggle a nearby seismometer.

When a storm is large enough – and storms classified as hurricanes or typhoons are – it will leave a seismic record lasting several days. Previous researchers have successfully traced individual large storms on a seismogram, but Gualtieri came at the question from the opposite side: can a seismogram find any large storm in the area?

Gualtieri and her colleagues found a statistically significant agreement between the occurrence of tropical cyclones and large-amplitude, long-lasting seismic signals with short periods, between three and seven seconds, called “secondary microseisms.” They were also able to calculate the typhoons’ strength from these “secondary microseisms,” or tiny fluctuations, which they successfully correlated to the observed intensity of the storms.

In short, the seismic record had enough data to identify when typhoons happened and how strong they were.So far, the researchers have focused on the ocean off the coast of Asia because of its powerful typhoons and a good network of seismic stations. Their next steps include refining their method and examining other storm basins, starting with the Caribbean and the East Pacific. And then they will tackle the historic seismic record: “When we have a very defined method and have applied this method to all these other regions, we want to start to go back in time,” said Gualtieri.

While global storm information goes back only to the early days of the satellite era, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the first modern seismograms were created in the 1880s. Unfortunately, the oldest records exist only on paper, and few historical records have been digitized.

“If all this data can be made available, we could have records going back more than a century, and then we could try to see any trend or change in intensity of tropical cyclones over a century or more,” said Pascale. “It’s very difficult to establish trends in the intensity of tropical cyclones — to see the impact of global warming. Models and theories suggest that they should become more intense, but it’s important to find observational evidence.”

“This new technique, if it can be shown to be valid across all tropical-cyclone prone basins, effectively lengthens the satellite era,” said Morgan O’Neill, a T.C. Chamberlin Postdoctoral Fellow in geosciences at the University of Chicago who was not involved in this research. “It extends the period of time over which we have global coverage of tropical cyclone occurrence and intensity,” she said.

The researchers’ ability to correlate seismic data with storm intensity is vital, said Allison Wing, an assistant professor of earth, ocean and atmospheric science at Florida State University, who was not involved in this research. “When it comes to understanding tropical cyclones — what controls their variability and their response to climate and climate change — having more data is better, in particular data that can tell us about intensity, which their method seems to do. … It helps us constrain the range of variability that hurricane intensity can have.”

This connection between storms and seismicity began when Gualtieri decided to play with hurricane data in her free time, she said. But when she superimposed the hurricane data over the seismic data, she knew she was on to something. “I said, ‘Wow, there’s something more than just play. Let’s contact someone who can help.”

Her research team ultimately grew to include a second seismologist, two atmospheric scientists, and a statistician. “The most challenging part was establishing communications with scientists coming from different backgrounds,” said Pascale. “Often, in different fields in science, we speak different dialects, different scientific dialects.”

The article, “The persistent signature of tropical cyclones in ambient seismic noise” by Lucia Gualtieri, Suzana Camargo, Salvatore Pascale, Flavio Pons, and Göran Ekström, was published Feb. 15 in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Gualtieri’s research was supported by a Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Postdoctoral Fellowship, Princeton University and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Camargo received support from NOAA grants NA15OAR4310095 and NA16OAR4310079. Pascale was supported by the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Climate Science grant NA14OAR4320106. This is the Lamont-Doherty Contribution Number 8172.

Story Source: Materials provided by Princeton University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Credit: Photo illustration by Lucia Gualtieri, satellite image courtesy of NASA/NOAA

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1. Buy enough food and water to last a few days. Canned food is the only kind acceptable for an event such as a hurricane; again, check the expiration dates to make sure the food is fresh. Always have these supplies on hand so that you can respond whenever an emergency arises. Try getting canned food that doesn’t require any added water or milk, such as Progresso.
2. Fill up the bathtub with water if you decide to stay home. An average bathtub full of water holds enough water for about three days. It also makes it possible to flush the toilet using a bucket. There is a lot of water in the hot water heater of your home. An average 150-liter water heater has enough water to keep a single person alive for a month. See here for details. An average person needs about 3.5 l of water (one gallon) per day. Pets (dogs) need about 1.75L of water per day. Cats need much less water.
3. Prepare your fridge and freezer. Do this as the storm enters your area and you settle down for the long haul. Eat perishables first in anticipation of the power going out. Fill your fridge and freezer with bottled water and sealed non-perishable items. The more full your freezer is, the more items there are to retain the cold and keep the overall temperature down. The same applies to the refrigerator.
4. Store as much water and fluids as you can in your fridge. If the power goes out, it will retain the cold longer; hopefully in time for the power to turn back on.
   Put all the ice that you have in your freezer into plastic bags. Fill all spaces in your freezer with bags of ice. Freeze water bottles, too.
   See How to keep foods frozen during a power failure for more details.
5. Have your prescription medication. Be sure that you are well supplied with any prescription drugs that you or your family take on a regular basis. Some insurers will not honor refills until the last refill is nearly used up or has run out. If necessary, drugs must be purchased without insurance; weeks may go by without the ability to get refills, putting your health at risk. If you’re in hurricane season, always have extra medication just case a storm comes in and all the pharmacies close down.
6. Make sure that you have the necessities. Have the supplies to make it through if you and your family are trapped in your house for a week without access to electricity, running water, and stores. These materials include things such as light sources (powered by battery or hand crank), a manual can opener, a first aid kit, and hygiene products.
7. Print out a medical aid guide like this so that you know how to administer proper care if the situation arises.

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Either by accident or faulty manufacturing, household consumer products injure an estimated 33.1 million people in the United States every year [source: Consumer Product Safety Commission]. These incidents rack up an astonishing $800 billion in related expenses from death, injury or property damages [source: Consumer Product Safety Commission]. The Consumer Product Safety Commission that regulates and recalls products on the market emphasizes potential dangers to children in particular for hurting themselves with toys, furniture or other common items in the home.

However, we can also pinpoint a number of invisible hazards from products we buy that aren’t as immediately apparent as a broken leg on a coffee table or a tear in a shirt. Scientists have realized that chemicals found in a wide variety of the goods we use every day may be more toxic than previously thought. In part because of the array of chemicals used to manufacture things we use in our daily lives, the National Poison Data System estimates 4 million cases of poisoning in the United States each year [source: American Association of Poison Control Centers].

We cannot discount that chemicals have made our lives easier. Thanks to them, we easily keep mosquitoes at bay, stop moths from eating our clothing and make our houses instantly smell like a dewy spring morning. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently concluded that indoor air may be more polluted than outdoor air [source: EPA]. And since we spend an average of 90 percent of our time inside, our home sweet home may not be so safe after all [source: EPA]. Where are these toxins coming from and what can we do about it? Read on to learn about 10 of the most common products that people are starting to think twice about bringing into their houses.

1. Mothballs. Since moths chew holes through clothing and other textiles, people pack away these stinky repellents to kill them. But studies on one active ingredient in some repellents, paradichlorobenzene, found that it can cause cancer in animals. Other types of mothballs use naphthalene, which after prolonged exposure can damage or destroy red blood cells, and which can also stimulate nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
2. Pesticides. Ninety percent of households in the United States use some form of pesticide, a broad term that encompasses a variety of chemical formulas that kill everything from tiny microorganisms up to rodents. In 2006, the American Association of Poison Control Centers received nearly 46,000 calls regarding children under 5 years old who had been exposed to potentially toxic levels of pesticides.
3. Pressed Wood Products. This faux wood takes bits and pieces of logs and wood leftovers and combines them together. Pressed wood products include paneling, particle board, fiberboard, and insulation, all of which were particularly popular for home construction in the 1970s. However, the glue that holds the wood particles in place may use urea-formaldehyde as a resin. The U.S. EPA estimates that this is the largest source of formaldehyde emissions indoors. Formaldehyde exposure can set off watery eyes, burning eyes and throat, difficulty breathing, and asthma attacks. Scientists also know that it can cause cancer in animals. The risk is greater with older pressed wood products since newer ones are better regulated.
4. Chemicals in Carpets. Indoor carpeting has recently come under greater scrutiny because of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with new carpet installation. The glue and dyes used with carpeting are Laser Printers Chemicals.
5. Lead Paint. In 1991, the U.S. government declared lead to be the greatest environmental threat to children. Even low concentrations can cause problems with your central nervous system, brain, blood cells, and kidneys. It’s particularly threatening for fetuses, babies, and children, because of potential developmental disorders. Many houses built before 1978 contain lead paint. Once the paint begins to peel away will, it release the harmful lead particles that you can inhale.
6. Air Fresheners and Cleaning Solutions. Air fresheners and cleaning solutions, when used excessively or in a small, unventilated area, can release toxic levels of pollutants. This comes from two main chemicals called ethylene-based glycol ethers and terpenes. While the EPA regards the ethers as toxic by themselves, the non-toxic terpenes can react with ozone in the air to form a poisonous combination. Air fresheners, in particular, are linked to many volatile organic compounds, such as nitrogen dioxide, and some fresheners also contain paradichlorobenzene, the same chemical emitted by mothballs.
7. Baby Bottles and BPA. Canada has taken the first steps to outlaw the sale of baby bottles made from polycarbonate plastics, which are the most common type on the market. It has done so because the plastics are made with a chemical called bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA has a structure very similar to estrogen and for that reason is referred to as a “hormone disruptor.” Hormone disruptors can interfere with the natural human hormones, especially for young children.
8. Flame Retardants. Commonly used in mattresses, upholstery, television, and computer casings and circuit boards, flame retardants use polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs for short. Two forms of PBDEs were phased out of use in manufacturing in the United States in 2004 because of related health threats, but the products containing them linger on. Studies have linked PBDEs to learning and memory problems, lowered sperm counts and poor thyroid functioning in rats and mice. Other animal studies have indicated that PBDEs could be carcinogenic in humans, although that has not yet been confirmed.
9. Cosmetic Phthalates. Phthalates, also called plasticizers, go into many products including hair spray, shampoos, fragrances, and deodorants. Phthalates bind the color and fragrance in cosmetic products and are also used to increase the durability and flexibility of plastics. Like BPA, these hormone-like chemicals are linked to reproductive and developmental problems in animals. Because of these findings, California and Washington State have banned the use of phthalates in toys for younger children.­

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Find information on How to Protect Your Property from a Storm Surge?

Long before satellites, radar and computer models could predict the track and intensity of hurricanes and tropical storms, there was Galveston. It was 1900, and the Gulf Coast Texas city was a sitting duck. Offshore spun a powerful hurricane with winds that exceeded 130 miles (209.21 kilometers) per hour.

The storm didn’t have a name, because back then no one gave hurricanes names. Forecasting storms were more guesswork than science. Before racing through the Gulf on its way to Texas, it had hammered the Caribbean. The Weather Bureau, which at the time was responsible for issuing warnings of wild weather, had done so. As experts would later determine, “many didn’t heed the warnings, preferring instead to watch the huge waves” [source: Britt].

In the end, those huge waves devastated Galveston. When the hurricane went ashore on Sept. 8, it crashed into the city. A storm surge of 8 to 15 feet (2.44 to 4.57 meters) swamped the island and other parts of the coast. Half of Galveston’s homes were swept away. By the time the storm ended, between 8,000 and 12,000 people were dead [source: Britt].

When a hurricane hits, it’s usually not the wind or rain that causes the most damage. The deadliest aspect of a hurricane is the storm surge. Storm surges form as a hurricane travels over warm water. As the hurricane sucks in moisture and heat from the water, it increases in strength. The storm’s strong winds slam against the ocean surface, forcing water to pile up. This wall of water then moves toward the coast, gaining energy and strength as it travels. It can take hours for a surge to build. By the time the hurricane slams into the shore, the storm surge can be a towering behemoth, a wall of water sweeping away everything in its path [source: NBCNews.com].

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