On October 25, 2025, Hurricane Melissa—a Category 5 storm with peak winds reaching an extraordinary 185 miles per hour—demonstrated its immense power in a striking and somewhat unexpected way: it literally caused the ground to tremble hundreds of miles away in Florida. This seismic activity was detected by seismometers, instruments traditionally used to monitor earthquakes, revealing a novel method for studying hurricanes both in the present and in the historical record.
Hurricane Melissa has already been recognized as one of the most intense hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It brought widespread devastation to parts of Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. The storm’s exceptional strength was captured not only through conventional meteorological tools such as satellites, aircraft reconnaissance, and oceanic sensors but also through seismic sensors that picked up the vibrations caused by the hurricane’s powerful winds and waves.
Seismometers, typically associated with monitoring tectonic movements and earthquakes, operate by detecting any energy that transmits into the ground. As seismologist Wendy Bohon explains, these devices can pick up a wide range of human and natural activities—from concerts and construction to landslides and volcanic eruptions. Hurricanes and typhoons, it turns out, are also capable of generating seismic waves that seismometers can detect.
There are two primary mechanisms by which hurricanes influence seismic readings. The first involves the hurricane’s intense winds shaking objects on land—such as trees, telephone poles, and fence posts—whose vibrations then transmit into the ground. The second, and more significant source of seismic energy, comes from the storm’s interaction with the ocean itself. As hurricane-driven waves rise and fall, they “drum” on the ocean floor, creating rhythmic pressure changes that propagate as seismic waves. In the case of Hurricane Melissa, this ocean-floor percussion produced distinct, serrated patterns on seismograms recorded in Jamaica in the days leading up to the storm’s landfall, visually underscoring the storm’s ferocity.
The ability of seismometers to detect hurricanes offers a unique advantage, especially when considering the historical record. While modern hurricanes are tracked with high precision using satellites, aircraft, and a global network of sensors, this level of technology has only been available for the past few decades. Before the satellite era, meteorologists lacked many of the tools we take for granted today, making it difficult to reconstruct the paths and intensities of past storms.
Seismometers, however, have been in place for much longer and continuously record ground vibrations worldwide. According to Andreas Fichtner, a seismologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, although the global seismic network was not as dense in earlier decades as it is now, it still provides valuable data. Researchers can analyze these historical seismic records to identify when and where tropical cyclones formed, how they moved, and when they dissipated. This approach effectively allows scientists to “rewind” the clock and study hurricanes from before the satellite age.
Moreover, the seismic waves generated by hurricanes are closely related to ocean wave heights, which in turn correlate with storm intensity. By calibrating modern seismic data against known hurricane strengths, scientists can interpret older seismic records to estimate the intensity of historical hurricanes. This methodology provides a new avenue for understanding long-term trends in hurricane activity and intensity, a subject of growing importance as climate change continues to affect global weather patterns.
Rising sea-surface temperatures due to global warming are predicted to increase the strength of hurricanes in the coming years. Models suggest that future storms will bring stronger winds, heavier rainfall, and more severe storm surges, posing greater risks to coastal communities. There is already some evidence that these changes are underway. If seismometers can reliably gauge the strength of past hurricanes, researchers will gain a powerful tool for tracking how tropical cyclone intensities have evolved over time, offering critical insight into the impacts of climate change on these destructive storms.
The use of seismometers in hurricane research exemplifies how scientific tools can be repurposed and adapted to deepen our understanding of Earth’s complex systems. While traditionally focused on geological phenomena, seismology is now contributing to meteorology and climate science by revealing patterns that would otherwise remain hidden. However, as seismologist Wendy Bohon notes, the increasing frequency of severe storms like Hurricane Melissa is both “frightening and heartbreaking,” highlighting the urgent need to understand and mitigate the impacts of such natural disasters.
Hurricane Melissa’s seismic signature serves as a stark reminder of the