THE LATE TIDAL WAVE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 4461, 2 October 1883, Page 2

THE LATE TIDAL WAVE.

Dr. Hector made some interesting remarks on earthquake disturbances in the ocean, at a meeting of the Philosophical Society, Wellington. The Times says — Referring to what be had said at a previous meeting, he had since satisfied himself that the tidal disturbances felt on these shores about the time of the Sanda eruptions were due to that cause. The editor of the New Zealand Journal of Science had objected that as the great Australian continent intervened directty between the Straits of Sunda and New Zealand, no tidal wave from that cause could have been felt here without being felt much more forcibly along the northern and western shores of Australia. The editor suggested that the disturbances felt here were probably due to other submarine movements in the Pacific. Late reports showed that the tidal disturbance was very marked on the Australian coast ; and the d'sturbances felt here were found to coincide suggestively with the principal of successive eruptions at Sunda. The retardation or acceleration of the tidal swell by those earthquake shocks would act and re-act in various directions, thereby causing disturbances of varying intensity on ull the shores of these islands. Atmospheric disturbances as self-registered by a delicaie'y suspended barometer coincided" re markably in the sudden jerks on several iVyj with the recorded eruptions at Sunda, beginning on the evening of August 27, and recurring on foui' or live days. These barometrical jerks and curves were exhibited by diagram, wilh dates and hours given ; and Dr. Hector showed that these readings in Wellington corresponded with similar jerks and curves recorded by a selfregistering barometer at Dunediu. The cause of those remarkable t'dal disturbances in August appeared to be demonstrated beyond a doubt.