Someone sent us this article and associated comments. Although it's "old news" (this weird event happened in late October, 2008) it is certainly very interesting! What do you think?
BOOTHBAY HARBOR (NEWS CENTER) -- Some boats were scratched and docks damaged Tuesday afternoon when low tide became high within a matter of minutes.
Locals in the area say it happened about 6 or 7 times throughout the afternoon. They say it surged in within a matter of 5 minutes, then flowed back out just as quickly.
The National Weather Service says the cause "remains a mystery and may never be known."
The National Weather Service in Gray released the following public information statement regarding the event.
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAY ME
...Tuesday's Unusual Tide Fluctuations Along The Mid-Maine Coast...
The cause of yesterday's unusual tide fluctuations along the mid coast of Maine remains a mystery...and may never be known. Significant rapid rises and falls in tide levels were observed around 3 pm in Boothbay Harbor, Southport, and Bristol. Only very minor fluctuations were noted at tide gauges along the coast.
There are several possible explanations for yesterday's event. Rapid surges can be caused by the underwater movement of land, most often due to an earthquake, or due to the slumping of sediments along a steep canyon or shelf. No earthquakes were reported in the area yesterday. In rare instances, large and rapid surges can be generated by storms. In either case, the bathymetry of the ocean floor reflects and refracts the wave energy and can causes significant variations in tide levels along the coast...and rapid changes in tide levels at a particular location. These surges are quite unlike the much slower surges normally associated with coastal storms.
Eye-witness reports from several locations indicated that water levels fell and rose from 4 feet to as much as 12 feet along the coast during the event. These rapid changes in tidal levels generated the strong currents that damaged piers and boats in the area.
Although these events are rare along the Maine coast, they have occurred in the past. On January 9, 1926, an event similar to yesterday's event was observed in Bass Harbor. During that event, the harbor drained rapidly and then was followed by a 10 ft surge of water, followed by two other smaller waves. There were no earthquakes reported on that day. No one was injured in that event but about 50 fishing boats were hurled ashore.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAY, MAINE
dbvoice wrote:
The scientific consensus for this event by oceanographers reviewing this matter is that it was caused by an underwater landslide/mudslide. Given the depth of the Gulf of maine.
"A tsunami is a wave produced by a disturbance that displaces a large mass of water - usually a result of geologic activities such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, underwater landslides, or in rare geologic cases, meteor strikes."
Please see this article for explanation:
http://www.maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/hazards/tsunami/jan05.htm
and this one about mudslides:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071212201343.htm
11/4/2008 9:43 AM EST
carddetective wrote:
I agree with Sciencefan that you were the victim of a Tsunami. Things would have been a lot different if it had struck at high tide. I live in California and the same thing happened in Crescent City, CA in 1964.
11/2/2008 11:58 PM EST
sciencefan wrote:
The Coast Guard was hasty in ascribing this unusual wave set to a storm surge. The behavior of this wave set is not consistent with Storm Surge, which is typically a single surge at the front of a storm. This was a series of waves of great wave length, entirely consistent with a tsunami. Locals observed the surge fall and rise, fall and rise, over a height of up to 12 feet, for 5 or 6 times, in a little as five minutes. That behavior is consistent with tsunami, and inconsistent with storm surge, because storm surge does not have a long wave length. Of course, if there were no earthquakes in the area on October 28, as the weather service says, that means nothing. Tsunami travel the entire world. Most people didn't know it, but the great earthquake of Indonesia that generated the devastating tsunami a few years ago actually made it to the Gulf of Maine, and was recorded as nearly 2 feet in height as it passed the buoy at Georges Bank, which could have translated into many more feet at the shore line. The weather service was misleading you. There indeed were several earthquakes on October 28 elsewhere in the world, including the huge 6.4 earthquake in Pakistan (which was not seaside, and did not create a tsunami) but also including a 6.0 on the coast of New Guinea, and quakes above 5.0 in the Philipines, Figi, and the day before in Philipines and Indonesia. Any of those coastal and island nations could generate tsunami that could reach the coast of Maine. Also, any number of "soft" forces could have created a tsunami without creating much seismic voice, including a slumping of mud walls of the continental shelf, a meteor striking the ocean, a vent or seabed releasing gas, or, to a smaller extent,ice sloughing off an ice sheet. Yes, it remains a mystery, but lets move away from the storm surge hypothesis and get real. A tsunami struck the coast of Maine, and luckily it struck when the tide was low. If that same phenomenon had struck at high tide...
We don't have a lot of historic documents relating to the Evans but we do have some pictures and some facts. This brochure is what was handed out to curious people during the rebuild. The photo on the front of the brochure is from 1939 when the Evans still had her sailing rig.
It's hard to see in the picture but that's the Evans with a pilothouse and oyster gear. It makes me wonder how she felt about moving around with fossil fuels instead of the wind.
