Light Science for Leisure Hours: A series of familiar essays on scientific subjects, natural phenomena, &c.Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
Light Science for Leisure Hours: A series of familiar essays on scientific subjects, natural phenomena, &c.
Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
Far on beyond the shores of New Zealand the great wave coursed,
reaching at length the coast of Australia. At dawn of August 14,
Moreton Bay was visited by five well-marked waves. At Newcastle, on
the Hunter River, the sea rose and fell several times in a remarkable
manner, the oscillatory motion commencing at half-past six in the
morning. But the most significant evidence of the extent to which
the sea-wave travelled in this direction was afforded at Port Fairy,
Belfast, South Victoria. Here the oscillation of the water was
distinctly perceived at midday on August 14; and yet, to reach this
point, the sea-wave must not only have travelled on a circuitous course
nearly equal in length to half the circumference of the earth, but
must have passed through Bass’s Straits, between Australia and Van
Diemen’s Land, and so have lost a considerable portion of its force and
dimensions.
When we remember that had not the effects of the earth-shock been
limited by the shores of South America, a wave of disturbance equal
in extent to that which travelled westward would have swept towards
the east, we see that the force of the shock was sufficient to have
disturbed the waters of an ocean covering the whole surface of the
earth. For the sea-waves which reached Yokohama in one direction and
Port Fairy in another had each traversed a distance nearly equal to
half the earth’s circumference; so that if the surface of the earth
were all sea, waves setting out in opposite directions from the centre
of disturbance would have met each other at the antipodes of their
starting-point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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