Maine TSUNAMI Update

Posted by Joe Joyce November 5, 2008 at 12:27 pm

Last Tuesday a freak tidal surge moved into Boothbay Harbor. Officials have been scrambling for an answer to what may have caused this. Some boats were scratched and docks damaged that day when low tide became high within a matter of minutes. The Coast Guard is calling it a storm surge. As the water was flowing out for low tide, a storm off-shore pushed it back in bringing the water level back almost near the high water mark. Locals in the area say it happened about 6 or 7 times throughout the afternoon. They say it surged in within a matter of 5 minutes, then flowed back out just as quickly.
The scientific consensus for this event by oceanographers reviewing this matter is that it was caused by an underwater landslide. Given the depth of the Gulf of maine…this may have been a bonafide Tsunami!
A tsunami is a wave produced by a disturbance that displaces a large mass of water - usually a result of geologic activities such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, underwater landslides, or in rare geologic cases, meteor strikes.

Here is an eyewitness account:

I witnessed this event first hand at 3 pm that day. I work at Mcseagulls restraunt in Boothbay harbor located near the head of the harbor. The event was unlike anything else I have ever seen! The water rushed out of the harbor in a matter of minutes. the power of the surge in the middle of the harbor was comparable to white water rapids during the spring thaw.

-Zac Spear, Boothbay Harbor

As strange as this may be…Tsunamis have occurred in Maine before.
Only small tsunami events have been recorded in Maine. According to the National Weather Service, events were recorded in 1872 and 1926. In 1872, small waves (less than 50 cm) were recorded by tide gauges in Penobscot Bay, though the source of the waves is unknown. A larger wave hit Mt. Desert Island in 1926. This wave reportedly reached 10 feet and suddenly flooded Bass Harbor. There were no injuries reported. It is thought that these events precipitated from small earthquakes in the Atlantic Ocean. Strangely, there are no records in Maine of the 1929 tsunami that hit Newfoundland.

Here is more information on Tsunamis:
http://www.maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/hazards/tsunami/jan05.htm