Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Taking the oomph out of hurricanes

If there's something big, windy, and scary in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? Hurricanebusters!

Some scientists have an idea for weakening hurricanes. They hope to reduce hurricane-caused damage by cooling the ocean water ahead of a hurricane. This would work by pumping deep water to the surface. Even where the ocean surface is warm, cooler water is available just a few hundred feet down.

Since warm water makes hurricanes stronger, and cool water makes them weaker, everyone seems to agree that the theory is solid. But the hurricanebusters plan would be hard to implement. It would be tough to design, build, and deploy pumps that would keep working in a rough, stormy ocean. But maybe it's worth a try since just one hurricane can do enormous damage?

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