Coastal Maine tide change a mystery

[thevenusian]

Coastal Maine tide change a mystery
October 30, 2008


BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine—Meteorologists are baffled by rapid tidal changes along the Maine coast, which damaged some boats and piers.

Witnesses say low tide turned and became high within a matter of minutes on Tuesday afternoon. The changes occurred six or seven times. The National Weather Service says reports from several locations indicated that water levels fell and rose from 4 feet to as much as 12 feet during the event.

In a public information statement, the weather service says the cause "remains a mystery and may never be known."

It said significant rapid rises and falls in tide levels were observed around 3 p.m. in Boothbay Harbor, Southport and Bristol. The statement said rapid surges can be caused by the underwater movement of land, most often due to an earthquake, or due to slumping of sediments along a steep canyon or shelf, but no earthquakes were reported in the area Tuesday.

A similar event occurred on Jan. 9, 1926, in Bass Harbor, the statement said.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2008/10/30/coastal_maine_tide_change_a_mystery/

 

[Laura]

Hmmm... wonder what else might have been happening 82 years ago when this odd event previously occurred?

I took a quick look and found the following which, of course, did not mention the tidal incident:

January - June 1926 Timeline

January

01 - Flood in Rhine strikes Cologne.
05 - James Cox of Ford Motors announces 8 hr day & $5 daily minimum wage.
08 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud becomes king of Hejaz; renames it Saudi Arabia.
17 - George Burns marries Gracie Allen.
21 - Makwar Dam is completed on Egypt's Nile River.
21 - Belgian parliament accepts Locarno treaties.
23 - Eugene O'Neill's "Great God Brown," premieres in NYC.
26 - Scottish inventor John Logie Baird publicly demonstrates his mechanical television system in London.
27 - US Senate agrees to join World Court.

February

01 - Land at Broadway & Wall Street sold at a record $7 per sq inch.
02 - 3 men dance Charleston for 22 hours.
04 - Austrian chancellor Seipel wants to join Germany.
08 - Walt Disney Studios forms.
08 - German Reichstag decides to apply for League of Nations
09 - Teaching theory of evolution forbidden in Atlanta, Georgia schools.
17 - Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch Bingham Utah, 40 die.
18 - First report of discovery of Mayan city ruins in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
25 - Francisco Franco becomes General of Spain.

March
03 - International Greyhound Racing Association formed in Miami, Florida.
06 - China asks for a seat in the Security council.
11 - Eamon da Valera ends leadership of Sinn Fein.
12 - Denmark begins unilateral disarmament.
12 - Pope Pius XI names J E van Roey archbishop of Malines Belgium.
16 - Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid fuel rocket at Auburn, Mass.It goes 56 meters
17 - Spain and Brazil prevent Germany joining League of Nations
24 - Albion Woodbury Small dies.
24 - The Beehive in the Hague opens 1st escalator in Netherlands.
26 - The 1st lip-reading tournament held in America.
26 - Konstantin Fehrenbach, German reichs chancellor 1920-1921, dies at 74.
31 - German Special Court of Justice for state security disbands.

April
02 - Riots between Moslems & Hindus in Calcutta.
03 - 2nd flight of a liquid-fueled rocket by Robert Goddard.
03 - Italy establishes corp of force in order to break powerful unions.
04 - Greek dictator Theodorus Pangalos elected president.
07 - Report from U.S. Attorney Emory R. Buckner of New York estimates the value of alcohol bootlegging in the U.S. at $3.6 billion.
07 - Mussolini's Irish wife breaks his nose.
16 - Book of the Month Club sends out its 1st selections "Lolly Willowes" & "Loving Huntsman" by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
18 - Rhein Stadium opens in Dusseldorf Germany.
19 - Sports
30th Boston Marathon won by Johnny Miles of Canada in 2:25:40.4.
21 - Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, is born.
26 - Germany & Russia sign neutrality/peace treaty.
29 - France & US reach accord on repayment of WW I.

May
00 - Fiery evangelist Amie Semple Macpherson + mysteriously disappears. Weeks later, she reappears, claiming to have been abducted and tortured.
00 - Blind Lemon Jefferson, the most famous and popular bluesman of the twenties, makes his first blues record, "Long Lonesome Blues," the first of many hits he recorded for Paramount Records, Chicago.
03 - Napoleon V Bonaparte, French pretender to the throne, dies at 63.
03 - US marines land in Nicaragua 9 months after leaving, stay until 1933.
05 - Sinclair Lewis refuses his Pulitzer Prize for "Arrowsmith".
08 - Fire breaks out in Fenway Park.
09 - U.S. Commander Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett are first to fly over the North Pole in the the zeppelin Norge
15 - Mohammed VI Vahideddin, last sultan of Turkey 1918-1922, dies.
19 - French air force bombs Damascus Syria.
20 - Congress passes Air Commerce Act, licensing of pilots & planes.
20 - Railway Labor Act became law.
20 - Thomas Edison says Americans prefer silent movies over talkies.
22 - "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" by Gene Austin hits #1.
25 - Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky dedicated.
25 - Symon Petlyura, leader of Ukraine (pogroms), assassinated at 47.
26 - Lebanon adopts constitution.
28 - Military coup by Gen Manuel Gomes da Costa in Portugal.
28 - US Customs Court created by congress.

June
01 - World's Fair open in Philadelphia
01 - Ignacy Mocicki elected president of Poland.
09 - New York Telephones offers home phones for $4/month
12 - Brazil leaves League of Nations

Nothing that seems to be related in the above. Maybe someone else can find something.

 

[Adaryn]

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

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=95126&catid=2

January 9, 1926 - Maine

The following are excerpts taken from the Associated Press Wire Service Bulletins on this event:
A "tidal wave" was reported at Bernard, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Unexplained in its origin, the phenomenon which occurred about noon caused the sudden emptying of Bass Harbor, followed a minute later by a 10-foot rush of water, and then two smaller waves. No one was injured, but about 50 fishing boats were hurled ashore, and two men in a dory had a narrow escape from falling cakes of ice when their craft suddenly grounded. The first sign that something was wrong was a rumbling from the direction of the harbor. Townspeople ran to the piers to see their harbor emptied with a rush. William Kelly, who has a fish-packing plant on the eastern shore of the harbor told what happened next: 'It was about low tide when the first wave came," he said. 'It flowed in steadily like the even flow of a river. Then came two lesser ones, and in less than 10 minutes the whole harbor was filled to near high water mark. Great whirlpools were formed. Small boats were tossed about at their moorings, and the 70-foot fishing boat Fish Hawk broke from her lines at the Underwood Dock and crashed against the pilings. The entire harbor was a mass of foam.' The water left the harbor so rapidly that a waterfall was created at the harbor mouth. In less than 15 minutes it was all over.'" (AP, Jan 9, 1926, 8:45 am)
From the remote fishing village of Corea on the northeast coast of Maine comes news that at about the same time Saturday that the phenomenon was observed at Bass Harbor, a monster wave smashed lobster cars, tore boats adrift, and washed thousands of flounder from their winter beds in the Harbor bottom mud. These fish were gathered up in barrels by the natives. The tidal wave came in at 11:00 am and was preceded by a rushing flood tide several hours earlier. (AP, Jan 14, 1929, 8:07 am).

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/phi/reports/tsunami.htm

...In Vinalhaven, an island in Penobscot Bay 25 miles (40 km) southwest of here, rumbling noises were heard four or five hours before the Bass Harbor disturbance, and an hour before it the islanders felt what they thought were slight earthquake shocks. A fisherman reported seeing a 10-inch (0.25-m) ripple on the waves, although the seawas calm, and he said the water was roily and peculiar in appearance. A steamer captain said that the occurrence at Bernard was probably what natives call a ‘bore’ wave, peculiar to coves and harbors of a certain shape. “From the head of the cove (of Bass Harbor), which is the inner extreme of the harbor, to Parker's wharf is a distance of a quarter of a mile (0.42 km). This whole area was drained entirely.” [The water had previously been 2.4 to 3 m (8 to 10 feet) deep in the drained area.] “Bar Harbor, summer resort for many wealthy persons also on theisland, did not feel the tidal wave.”“Prof. Kistlay F. Mather, dean of the observatory at Harvard University, said the University seismograph showed no record of any earth disturbance. He believed it possible that the outgoing tide had carried enough ice withit to form a dam at the head of the ragged inlet which forms the harbor, and that the incoming tide had broken thisdam and caused the sudden inrush of water.”However, the Associated Press wire release of 8:07 A.M. January 14, 1926, indicates a wider source. "From the remote fishing village of Corea on the northeastern Maine coast comes news that at about the same time Saturdaythat the phenomenon was observed at Bass Harbor, a monster wave smashed lobster cars, tore boats adrift, and washed thousands of flounder from their winter beds in the Harbor bottom mud. These fish were gathered up in barrels by the natives. The tidal wave came at 11 A.M. and was preceded by a rushing flood tide several hoursearlier.” An explanation for this event is not known. However, the offshore sediments contain glacial deposits and trapped gas, and a non-seismically generated submarine slump or landslide is a possibility.

http://library.lanl.gov/tsunami/ts203.pdf

 

[Color]

Hmmm... wonder what else might have been happening 82 years ago when this odd event previously occurred?

Nothing that seems to be related in the above. Maybe someone else can find something.

Well, if this is true:

1926 Associated Press bulletins transcribed for the January 9 event in Maine; plus an update on January 14. No year is on these items, but tradition holds it was 1926.

Then 1926. is not necessarily the year we're looking for?

It may have nothing to do with it, but it's interesting what happened in the 1929. :

[quote author=Wikipedia]October 24 - October 29 - Wall Street Crash of 1929: Three multi-digit percentage drops wipe out more than $30 billion from the New York Stock Exchange (10 times greater than the annual budget of the federal government).[/quote]

followed with this:

[quote author=Wikipedia]November 18 - 1929 Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area, killing 28 (as of 1997, Canada's most lethal earthquake).[/quote]

But there's a paper (Hasegawa and Kanamori, 1987) stating that a single-force mechanism was more consistent with the data than was a double-couple source and that therefore the event was not an earthquake.

Interesting...

Alice

 

[Adaryn]

1926 Associated Press bulletins transcribed for the January 9 event in Maine; plus an update on January 14. No year is on these items, but tradition holds it was 1926.

Then 1926. is not necessarily the year we're looking for?

It may have nothing to do with it, but it's interesting what happened in the 1929.

Interesting you mention 1929 - notice the date in the extract I quoted in my previous post. It might be a typo, but... :

From the remote fishing village of Corea on the northeast coast of Maine comes news that at about the same time Saturday that the phenomenon was observed at Bass Harbor, a monster wave smashed lobster cars, tore boats adrift, and washed thousands of flounder from their winter beds in the Harbor bottom mud. These fish were gathered up in barrels by the natives. The tidal wave came in at 11:00 am and was preceded by a rushing flood tide several hours earlier. (AP, Jan 14, 1929, 8:07 am).

 

[Laura]

I'm sure it's a typo which seems to be confirmed by the third version of it.

 

[thevenusian]

It may or may not be significant that the location of this event is quite near the entrance to the Bay of Fundy, which has one of the greatest tidal amplitude range.
from 'Tides, Surges and Mean Sea-Level' p.188
David T. Pugh

"The tides of Long Island Sound (Marmer, 1926; Redfield, 1980) are dominated
by a standing wave oscillation which is driven from its eastern entrance.
However, there is also a tidal flow which enters through the East River. The
effect of this flow from the west into the Sound is to shift the antinode where
maximum tidal amplitudes occur slightly to the east of the head of the Sound.
Near to Glen Cove the spring tidal range exceeds 2.6 m.
Further north, the tidal system which develops in the Gulf of Maine and the
Bay of Fundy consists of near-resonant oscillations which produce the world's
greatest tidal amplitudes, in the Minas Basin. Figure 5:14 shows how the M2
amplitudes increase from less than 0.5 m at the shelf edge to more than 5.6 m at
Burncoat Head. It has been estimated that the natural quarter-wave period of
this system is close to 13.3 hours, which explains the large near resonant
response to semidiurnal tides. Proposals to exploit the very large tidal ranges by
building tidal power stations would reduce the effective length of the system, so
bringing the natural period (equation (5:6)) even closer to the 12.4 hours of the
M2 tide! For tidal systems near resonance, even small physical changes can
produce large changes in tidal range (Ku et al., 1985). Estimates of the effect of
'tuning' the tidal responses are uncertain because the enhanced dissipation,
vital for estimating responses close to resonance, is also uncertain."