The mighty Susquehanna-extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia
The hazards posed by infrequent major floods to communities along the Susquehanna River and the ecological health of Chesapeake Bay remain largely unconstrained due to the short length of streamgage records. Here we develop a history of high‐flow events on the Susquehanna River during the late Holoc...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
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ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:59447 2023-05-15T17:34:53+02:00 The mighty Susquehanna-extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia Toomey, Michael Cantwell, Meagan Colman, Steven Cronin, Thomas Donnelly, Jeffrey Giosan, Liviu Heil, Clifford Korty, Robert Marot, Marci Willard, Debra 2019-03 application/pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62291.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62293.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62294.xlsx https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080890 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/ eng eng American Geophysical Union (AGU) https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62291.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62293.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62294.xlsx doi:10.1029/2018GL080890 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (American Geophysical Union (AGU)), 2019-03 , Vol. 46 , N. 6 , P. 3398-3407 hurricane flood Holocene east coast river Chesapeake text Publication info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2019 ftarchimer https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080890 2021-09-23T20:32:13Z The hazards posed by infrequent major floods to communities along the Susquehanna River and the ecological health of Chesapeake Bay remain largely unconstrained due to the short length of streamgage records. Here we develop a history of high‐flow events on the Susquehanna River during the late Holocene from flood deposits contained in MD99‐2209, a sediment core recovered in 26 m of water from Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Maryland, USA. We identify coarse‐grained deposits left by Hurricane Agnes (1972) and the Great Flood of 1936, as well as during three intervals that predate instrumental flood records (~1800‐1500, 1300‐1100 and 400‐0 CE). Comparison to sedimentary proxy data (pollen and ostracode Mg/Ca ratios) from the same core site indicate that prehistoric flooding on the Susquehanna often accompanied cooler‐than‐usual winter/spring temperatures near Chesapeake Bay—typical of negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation and conditions thought to foster hurricane landfalls along the East Coast. Plain Language Summary Despite the vulnerability of many mid‐Atlantic cities to flooding, including Washington D.C., few long‐term records exist to assess the risks posed by extreme, infrequent, storm events. Here we document recent and prehistoric floods on the Susquehanna River, which has the largest watershed on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, using sediment cores collected from Chesapeake Bay. Our analysis finds that much of the Susquehanna's observed centennial‐millennial scale flood variability may be driven by the frequency of hurricane landfalls along the U.S. East Coast. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) Geophysical Research Letters 46 6 3398 3407 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) |
op_collection_id |
ftarchimer |
language |
English |
topic |
hurricane flood Holocene east coast river Chesapeake |
spellingShingle |
hurricane flood Holocene east coast river Chesapeake Toomey, Michael Cantwell, Meagan Colman, Steven Cronin, Thomas Donnelly, Jeffrey Giosan, Liviu Heil, Clifford Korty, Robert Marot, Marci Willard, Debra The mighty Susquehanna-extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia |
topic_facet |
hurricane flood Holocene east coast river Chesapeake |
description |
The hazards posed by infrequent major floods to communities along the Susquehanna River and the ecological health of Chesapeake Bay remain largely unconstrained due to the short length of streamgage records. Here we develop a history of high‐flow events on the Susquehanna River during the late Holocene from flood deposits contained in MD99‐2209, a sediment core recovered in 26 m of water from Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Maryland, USA. We identify coarse‐grained deposits left by Hurricane Agnes (1972) and the Great Flood of 1936, as well as during three intervals that predate instrumental flood records (~1800‐1500, 1300‐1100 and 400‐0 CE). Comparison to sedimentary proxy data (pollen and ostracode Mg/Ca ratios) from the same core site indicate that prehistoric flooding on the Susquehanna often accompanied cooler‐than‐usual winter/spring temperatures near Chesapeake Bay—typical of negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation and conditions thought to foster hurricane landfalls along the East Coast. Plain Language Summary Despite the vulnerability of many mid‐Atlantic cities to flooding, including Washington D.C., few long‐term records exist to assess the risks posed by extreme, infrequent, storm events. Here we document recent and prehistoric floods on the Susquehanna River, which has the largest watershed on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, using sediment cores collected from Chesapeake Bay. Our analysis finds that much of the Susquehanna's observed centennial‐millennial scale flood variability may be driven by the frequency of hurricane landfalls along the U.S. East Coast. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Toomey, Michael Cantwell, Meagan Colman, Steven Cronin, Thomas Donnelly, Jeffrey Giosan, Liviu Heil, Clifford Korty, Robert Marot, Marci Willard, Debra |
author_facet |
Toomey, Michael Cantwell, Meagan Colman, Steven Cronin, Thomas Donnelly, Jeffrey Giosan, Liviu Heil, Clifford Korty, Robert Marot, Marci Willard, Debra |
author_sort |
Toomey, Michael |
title |
The mighty Susquehanna-extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia |
title_short |
The mighty Susquehanna-extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia |
title_full |
The mighty Susquehanna-extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia |
title_fullStr |
The mighty Susquehanna-extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia |
title_full_unstemmed |
The mighty Susquehanna-extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia |
title_sort |
mighty susquehanna-extreme floods in eastern north america during the past two millennia |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62291.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62293.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62294.xlsx https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080890 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/ |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_source |
Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (American Geophysical Union (AGU)), 2019-03 , Vol. 46 , N. 6 , P. 3398-3407 |
op_relation |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62291.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62293.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/62294.xlsx doi:10.1029/2018GL080890 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00483/59447/ |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080890 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
46 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
3398 |
op_container_end_page |
3407 |
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1766133855219089408 |