Few paleotempestological studies have focused on coastal sinkholes, a common feature in Florida, which can receive and preserve storm overwash sediments. The major goal of this research is to improve our understanding of the characteristic signatures of storm sediments in sinkholes thereby determining reliability of these environments as proxies for hurricanes. Hurricane Irma as a category 5 storm provides an excellent case study for characterizing storm deposits in sinkholes on Big Pine Key. We cored at four sinkholes along a 350 m transect normal to the shoreline. Core sediments were characterized using physical description, short-lived radioisotope dating, sediment grain size analysis, loss-on-ignition, microfossil analysis, and x-ray fluorescence elemental analysis. We found that Irma deposits had higher abundances of marine foraminifera, less total organic matter and elevated Si/Al and Ca/Ti ratios, compared to pre- or post-Irma sediments. In addition, there was a thinning of the storm sediments along the inland transect. Consequently, we propose that sinkholes, particularly those that are closer to the shoreline, can provide reliable sites for paleotempestology studies.

很少有古气候学研究关注沿海落水洞，这是佛罗里达州的一个共同特征，可以接收和保存风暴冲刷沉积物。这项研究的主要目标是提高我们对落水洞中风暴沉积物特征特征的理解，从而确定这些环境作为飓风代理的可靠性。作为 5 类风暴的飓风艾尔玛提供了一个极好的案例研究，用于表征大松礁上落水洞中的风暴沉积物。我们沿着垂直于海岸线的 350 m 横断面在四个落水洞中取芯。使用物理描述、短寿命放射性同位素测年、沉积物粒度分析、失燃、微化石分析和 X 射线荧光元素分析来表征岩心沉积物。我们发现 Irma 矿床中海洋有孔虫的丰度更高，与前或后 Irma 沉积物相比，更少的总有机质和更高的 Si/Al 和 Ca/Ti 比率。此外，沿内陆断面的风暴沉积物变薄。因此，我们建议天坑，尤其是那些靠近海岸线的天坑，可以为古气候学研究提供可靠的地点。