Abstract
The distinguished Norwegian oceanographer Harald U. Sverdrup (1888–1957) proposed, in 1918, that an increased amount of energy in the system, during periods of high sunspot activity, results in increased strength of winds in the North Atlantic. Changes in wind strength and mixing in the North Atlantic should affect coral growth on Bermuda. We test this proposition with an 800-year record of Montastrea cavernosa from this island, comparing the cycles found within the series of growth bands (that is, rates of growth) with the cycles found in the sunspot record. The main lines in the solar record, for the last 300 years, are as follows: 11.2, 9.9, 10.6, 12.0, and 9.3 (in the order of strength). In the coral record, strong periods appear near 37.5, 30.8, 27.0, 21.7, 7.5 and 6.0 years. There is no peak near 11 years. However, when testing for predictability (that is, deviation from expectation by forward extrapolation of thickness of growth bands), periods appear (in the order of amplitude) at 30, 10.5, 21, 9.1, 33.6, 55, 7.2, 80 and 6.2 years. All can conceivably be interpreted as whole-number sunspot multiples (3 x 9.9; 1 x 10.6; 2 x 10.6; 1 x 9.3; 3 x 11.2; 5 x 11.2; 2/3 x 11.2; 7 x 11.2 or 8 x 9.9; 2/3 x 9.3) thus giving support to Sverdrup’s conjecture. However, other factors also must be considered, including internal oscillations and tidal cycles.
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Berger, W.H., Pätzold, J., Wefer, G. (2002). Times of Quiet, Times of Agitation: Sverdrup’s Conjecture and the Bermuda Coral Record. In: Wefer, G., Berger, W.H., Behre, KE., Jansen, E. (eds) Climate Development and History of the North Atlantic Realm. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04965-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04965-5_7
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