The Truth about Tidal Waves


Paradoxical as it may sound, tidal waves have caused some of the most terrible disasters in history, yet they occur twice daily without serious results. Here is an explanation of these oceanic upheavals.
by CALVIN FRAZER
ANY kind of an upheaval of the ocean's surface has generally been called, particularly by newspaper writers, a tidal wave, but according to the strict definitions of science this designation has been a grevious error. The error, unfortunately, has crept into the working vocabularies of scientists themselves, and now tidal wave has come to denote any kind of oceanic disturbance in which the waters of the sea rise up in their might and work havoc on ships at sea and inhabitants of the littoral.