HIGHEST WAVES ON RECORD: CAMERONS INQUIRY ANSWERED

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 March 1948, Page 6

HIGHEST WAVES ON RECORD: CAMERONS INQUIRY ANSWERED

Information as to the highest wave and tidal wave ever recorded was sought recently by a Camerons correspondent. A text book “The Oceans, their Physics, Chemistry and General Biology,” by H. U. Sverdrup, Martin W. Johnson and Richard H. Fleming, which was supplied through the courtesy of the Country Library Service, has the following to say on the subject:— ■The greatest wave heights observed in most oceans, are about 12 metres (one metre 39,37 inches), but after a hurricane in the North Atlantic ocean r in December 1922, officers of the, Majestic reported waves that aver- ' - aged 20 metres with a maximum , , neight of up to 30 metres. It is re- : ■ garded as probable that these great; i wave heights referred to are occasion- ' ■ al peaks of water that shoot up. to i elevations considerably above the • general wave height. In the Antarctic ' ocean Wave heights of up to 14 or 15 metres have been observed relatively often. The most destructive tidal wave recorded occurred on November 1,: 1755, as a result of an earthquake, causing great damage at Lisbon. This wave reached the West Indies on the other side of the ocean, and was then four to six metres in height. | The greatest waves, however, are, believed to have occurred as a result of the eruption of the Volcano Krakatao in the Sunda strait on August 26 and 27 1883. Several waves occurred after the different eruptions and the highest caused great devastation on some of the East Indian islands where more than 36,000 people lost their lives and where the waves, in certain localities, must have reached a height ■ of 35 metres (almost 115 feet). j