Can't help you with the article but it looks like the news hounds get it wrong again when it comes to science reporting. While it may be rare to have a Seiche as large as the one they reported it is not at all a rare occurance to have Seiche activity on the Great Lakes. On any given day you will be able to measure cycles of rising and falling water level over a period of a few hours to half a day or so. In a Limnology class we took a meter stick down to a nice sheltered area of a Marina, tied it to a dock post and watched for the cycles (very high tech!). Every so many hours the water level would rise and fall about six inches. The article is correct in that the cycles are due to either wind pushing more water to one end of the Lake or in some case air pressure variations will raise and lower water levels unevenly across the lakes. Once the water level is disturbed you often have a steady cycle of ups and downs kind of like pushing water to one end of the bath tub and then watching the level rise and fall at the ends as it sloshes back and forth. I believe in class we were told that Lake Erie has had Seiches with water level changes up to five or six feet. More typically you see a foot or two at most. All of this has nothing to do with the moon and the tidal action that we see in the oceans. Maximum lunar tides in the Great Lakes run about two centimeters which is nothing to get excited about. Mark Heath wrote: > I for this NY Times article on the web and couldn't find it. Do you have > a location for it, or could you send the entire story? Thanks > > M./ > > On Thu, 16 > Dec 1999, Clifford wrote: > > > Folks, > > Another oddity. It is reported by AP in the NY Times (Metro > > Section), Thursday, Dec. 16, 1999, "An Unexpected View of Lake Erie's > > Bottom". Reportedly, "the floor of Lake Erie was in Plain view from > > Buffalo on Tuesday as water shifted from New York and toward Ohio in a > > rare phenomenon. The cause was a seiche ... , a condition in which > > strong sustained winds cause large amounts of water to move from one > > part of a body of water to another." Read the story for details. Richard > > Clifford > > > > *************************************************************************** > PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not > to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission > Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net > Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net > Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ > *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Dec 16 1999 - 10:32:10 PST
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