Massive waves hit Boothbay Harbor...
Tom Francis - SWSports
-------
Dockworker Marcy Ingall saw a giant wave in the distance last Tuesday
afternoon and stopped in her tracks. It was an hour before low tide in
Maine's Boothbay Harbor, yet without warning, the muddy harbor floor
suddenly filled with rushing, swirling water.
Graphic Squall-line surges and rogue waves
In 15 minutes, the water rose 12 feet, then receded. And then it
happened again. It occurred three times, she said, each time ripping
apart docks and splitting wooden pilings.
"It was bizarre," said Ingall, a lifelong resident of the area.
"Everybody was like, 'Oh my God, is this the end?' " It was not the
apocalypse, but it was a rare phenomenon, one that has baffled
researchers. The National Weather Service said ocean levels rapidly
rose in Boothbay, Southport, and Bristol in a matter of minutes around
3 p.m. on Oct. 28 to the surprise of ocean watchers. Exactly what
caused the rogue waves remains unknown.
"The cause of it is a mystery," said National Weather Service
meteorologist John Jensenius, who first reported the waves from a
field office in Gray, Maine. "But it's not mysterious that it
happened."
Specialists have posed a variety of possible explanations, saying the
waves could have been caused by a powerful storm squall or the
slumping of mountains of sediment from a steep canyon in the ocean - a
sort of mini tsunami. The last time such rogue waves appeared in Maine
was at Bass Harbor in 1926.
Jensenius said the occurrence is so unusual, that specialists don't
have a name for the phenomenon.
"That's part of our problem," he said.
A similar occurrence in Florida more than 15 years ago continues to
baffle researchers. A series of 12- to 15-foot waves hit Daytona Beach
on July 3, 1992, injuring more than 20 people and lifting and tossing
dozens of cars.
Jeff List, an oceanographer at the US Geological Survey at Woods Hole
said he and other researchers studied the occurrence, but no one has
been able to pinpoint the cause. And he said similarly enormous waves
appeared once on the Great Lakes.
Could such a wave or waves enter Boston Harbor, or even engulf the
Massachusetts coast?
"It seems a little unlikely one could hit Boston," List said. "But
then again, these things are always surprises when they occur."
A squall line surge, which occurs when fast-moving storm winds sweep
over water that is traveling the same speed, can create such a wave.
(The speed of waves is directly related to wind speed and the depth of
the ocean at any given point.)
List and other specialists said such an occurrence is exceedingly
rare, but when it occurs, "you get this interaction that causes a
large bulge of water to rise up."
Jensenius said that might have been a factor last week, when a major
storm front brought rain to most of the East Coast, particularly
southern New England. But he said that does not solve the mystery,
adding that he had not ruled out a massive "land slump" underwater.
Such slumps can create waves that may be classified as tsunamis,
although no where near the size and scale of the tsunami that occurred
in the Indian Ocean in 2004. Those fast-moving and deadly waves were
caused by a massive earthquake.
Tsunami-like waves may not be as rare on the East Coast as most people
think. Jensenius referenced a 2002 article in the International
Journal of the Tsunami Society that called the threat of tsunami and
tsunami-like waves generated in the Atlantic Ocean "very real despite
a general impression to the contrary."
The article said such waves appear "in most cases to be the result of
slumping or landsliding associated with earthquakes or with wave
action associated with strong storms."
Explosive decompression of underwater methane could also be a factor.
Jensenius said he is trying to gather information on the waves that
hit Boothbay Harbor, adding that he has asked local businesses such as
banks whether the event might have been recorded on security videos.
"It could be this or it could be that, but as a science, it is very
difficult to tie it down," he said of the waves.
List also said the waves could have been triggered by the same
conditions that cause a tsunami, including a breaking glacier. Rogue
waves can result from a tsunami traveling through the ocean that
breaks "down into numerous waves."
According to the National Weather Service, no earthquakes or seismic
activity were reported in the area when the Boothbay waves appeared.
List noted that there was no seismic reading when the Daytona waves
struck.
Tom Lippmann, an oceanographer in the Marine Sciences Department at
the University of New Hampshire, said he also suspected that the Maine
wave was a squall line surge. The National Weather Service incorrectly
called it a tide surge, he said.
"Tides in the Gulf of Maine are essentially driven by celestial
bodies' pull on the earth's water," he said. "They're very well
predicted and very well known."
Residents and business owners in Boothbay said they were glad the
phenomenon didn't happen at high tide, when it might have caused
massive flooding and more extensive damage. Janice Newell, who lives
nearby in Head of the Harbor, told the local newspaper the rushing
water "was of biblical proportion."
"There were three large whirlpools in the inner harbor, up to within a
foot of my neighbor's wall," she told the Boothbay Register. "It was
beautiful, but it was scary."
Elena Smith, a waitress and part-owner of McSeagull's restaurant
overlooking the harbor, said the late-afternoon lunch crowd sat
speechless as the waters rose and receded. She was stunned to see the
normally safe and placid harbor suddenly run like rapids. Some
residents reported seeing massive whirlpools of water that
disappeared, leaving clam shells and seaweed in vortex patterns on the
harbor floor.
"It felt like somebody took the plug out somewhere" in the ocean,
Smith said. "It felt like there must have been water missing in the
ocean someplace."
Tim
<removeem...@rejectswsportsdot.org> wrote:
>
> Explosive decompression of underwater methane could also be a factor.
>
Blasted Sea Cows!
Tim
Seriously though. That story reminded me of when I read this:
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Day-a-Tidal-Wave-Hit-Chicago&id=172583
And other "tsunami" stories happening on the Great Lakes