Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20): Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky
Science
Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20): Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky
Science -- Juvenile literature
Far on beyond the shores of New Zealand the great wave coursed,
reaching at length the coast of Australia. At dawn of August 14th
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 14th; 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 on the water been limited by the shores of South America,
a wave of disturbance equal in extent to that which travelled westward
would have swept toward 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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