I am reading a book about large waves in the ocean. It reminded me of how when I did my architectural project on an island in Long Island Sound this summer, the structural engineer made the comment that the engineers who design the structure for things like this always live well inland. What is very interesting is that sailors have always talked about the unpredictable large wave that occurs from time to time. I remember reading an account of this in Kon Tiki where the writer thought it was a tsunami, but I think tsunamis when out at sea are not usually very high, just have an extremely long period. The USS Ramapo accurately measured a wave at 112 feet during a storm during the 1930s and that was widely accepted, But in general these things were dismissed as exagerations by sailors. After the Christmas day tsunami a lot more attention was turned to the subject. Satellites were used to measure wave activity. However at first the results were eliminated on the grounds that some of the wave heights measured in places like the Southern Ocean and the North Atlantic were obviously mistakes. Further research revealed that in fact the data was accurate. The loss of the Malaysian airlines flight got a huge amount of attention. Less commonly known is that large ships occaisionally disappear without a trace in the middle of the ocean, no SOS, no nothing. Ive had a couple of clients over the years who work in the shipping industry who confirm this. It doesnt happen to cruise ships because cruise ships tend not to go in these places to begin with. Really large ships carrying bulk cargo which are on a tight schedule are more vulnerable. Oil companies with oil rigs in the north sea, along with shipping lines, are fairly aware of the situation since it can lead to very big losses, but tend to be very reticent about these things. After all oil spills are terrible publicity, and who wants to say that the ship were are using to carry a your valuable cargo across the sea might mysteriously sink without a trace. There were things like the typhoons in WW2 which late in the war did to the American fleet what the Japanese could not (its in most books about the sea war in the Pacific and Halsey was severely reprimanded for not paying better attention to the weather), but warships for obvious reasons tend to be better constructed than bulk cargo ships. The author goes into some detail about the whole global warming issue (melting icecaps mean more water pressure which means more earthquakes and tsunamis and possible changes to ocean currents and storm patterns) and does a very good job of describing the problem of no one really knows what will happen but that the uncertainty does not negate the possibilities or reduce the probability that something will happen. From a scientific point of view the entire subject must be fascinating. The wave scientists interviewed are unanimous in agreement that current wave theory as applied to oceanic waves simply does not explain all the observable data. What more could a scientist want? Jim maybe quit astrophysics and study the ocean-it might be more challenging?
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 13:31:02 +0000