A comprehensive, 12-page article on seiches appeared in the July/August
issue of American Scientist, and it was awash with curious
observations. A seiche (pronounced "saysh") is a rhythmic
rocking motion of a body of water that has been disturbed by natural
forces, such as sudden weather changes and, especially, earthquakes.
A famous example of the latter seichedriving force occurred on
March 27, 1964, when the Great Alaskan Earthquake sent seismic
waves rippling around the globe. Fourteen minutes after this quake,
the tremors reached the U.S. Gulf coast and triggered numerous
seiches in bays, harbors, canals, bayous, etc. Some crest-to-trough
waterlevel oscillations reached 2 meters in amplitude. Startling
though these seiches were to Gulf fishermen, most seiches
are wellexplained. Bodies of water that are mostly enclosed have
natural frequencies of oscillation or "sloshing," just
as do coffee cups and bathtubs. The Alaskan quake just operated
on a larger scale than a bump to your coffee cup!
Short-period oscillations in the tidal record from Puerto Princesa, Palawan Island, Philippines. These are coastal seiches, but hardly "death waves"!
So far, so good. But there are exists an interesting -- and sometimes
dangerous -- class of related events that affects open coastal waters.
The Irish call them "death waves." In the Baltic, they
are "seebars;" in the Azores, "lavadiads."
Whatever their name, they are large, tsunamilike waves that suddenly
enter coastal waters and which cannot be assigned to any known
triggering force. The frequency of occurrence of these "coastal
seiches" may be a clue to their source. For example, off
the
Puerto Rican island of Magueyes, coastal seiches are most common
about 7 days after new and full moons, suggesting a tidal influence.
Oceanographers G.S. Giese and R.B. Hollander think that these
coastal seiches are the consequence of internal waves (solitons*)
formed at the southeastern edge of the Caribbean where tidal effects
are particularly powerful 2 days after new and full moons. These
slowmoving internal waves take 5 days to reach Puerto Rico, where
they emerge as coastal seiches. Similar internal waves created
by tidal currents at the edges of the continental shelves and
deepwater sills may explain the mysterious coastal seiches recorded
in the Anadaman and Sulu Seas. So far, no one has suggested origins
for the Irish "death waves" and Baltic "seebars."
(Korgen, Ben J.; "Seiches," American Scientist,
83:330, 1995.)
*Internal waves or solitons move, mostly unseen at the surface,
along the ocean's thermoclinethe plane separating warm surface
water from much colder water below. The vertical amplitude of
the solitons may be hundreds of meters, but at the surface they
are represented by only small, gently domed, slowly moving waves
or by regions of turbulence. Coastal seiches appear when the solitons
impinge on coasts. For more on unusual waves and solitons, see:
Earthquakes, Tides, etc. This book is listed here.
"A sourcebook of unexplained phenomena is therefore a valuable addition to a collection of scientific literature. William R. Corliss has provided this in the past with his source books of scientific anomalies in several subjects, and now he has provided it for astronomy. He has done an excellent job of collecting and editing a large amount of material, taken in part from scientific journals and in part from scientific reporting in the popular or semi-scientific press." -- "The Mysterious Universe: A Handbook of Astronomical Anomalies", reviwed by Thomas Gold, Cornell University, in Icarus, vol.41, 1980
"An interesting, systematic presentation of unusual weather [..] This book is recommended for a general audience" --"Corliss, William R., Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation, and Related Weather Phenomena, Sourcebook Project, 1983.", revieweed in Choice, September 1983
"..the science is necessarily somewhat speculative, but Corliss's symthesis is based on reputable sources." -- "Corliss, William R. (Compiler). Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights, and Related Luminous Phenomena" reviwed by Joseph M. Moran, Univ. of Wisconsin in Science Books and Films, Sep/Oct 1983
"Before opening the book, I set certain standards that a volume which treads into dangerous grounds grounds like this must meet. The author scrupulously met, or even exceeded those standards. Each phenomenon is exhaustively documented, with references to scientific journals [..] and extensive quotations" -- "Book Review: The moon and planets: a catalog of astronomical anomalies", The Sourcebook Project, 1985., Corliss, W. R., Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 81, no. 1 (1987), p. 24., 02/1987
