Waves crashing onshore in Woods Hole, Mass., during the 1938 hurricane. Large waves associated with intense hurricanes can erode and transport coastal sediments, as well as destroy infrastructure and threaten lives. Sediment transported by storm surge and waves  can be washed into coastal ponds and marshes, preserving a record of the storms passage. A new study examining these sediments found that intense hurricanes possibly more powerful than any storms New England has experienced in recorded history frequently pounded the region during the first millennium.
Credit: WHOI