Hole in One

WHOI geologist Jeff Donnelly and research assistant Richard Sullivan recently joined Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) geologist Pete van Hengstum and undergraduate student Tyler Winkler in collecting cores from Thatchpoint Bluehole. It is thought that blueholes form when rising seas flood a sinkhole, formed when limestone bedrock is dissolved from below by groundwater and collapses. The team collected a continuous, nine-meter (30-foot) sediment core from the bluehole as part of their efforts to construct a record of the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones in the western Atlantic. (Photo courtesy of Pete van Hengstum, Texas A&M University)