Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1877-08-04
THE GREAT SEA.WAYE.
H"lehtihc Explanations Of tho Recent
CphcaVaI la the PnciHc.


The great sea-wave; which after the
recent earthquake at Peru, swept across
the Pacific to the Sandwich islands, af-
tords fresh illustration of the vital energy
which still pervades the frame of our
earth. If those theories be sound accord
ing to which each planet during its ex-
treme youth is as sun glowing with
fiery heat and in extreme old age is, like
our moon, cold (save where the suns ravg
pour upon it), even to its very centre,
we should regard the various portions of
the middle age of a planet as indicating
more or less of vitality according as the
signs of internal heat and activity were
greater or less. Assuredly, thus viewing
our earth, we have no reason to accept
the melancholy doctrine that she is ap-
preaching the stage of planetary decrep-
itude. She still shows signs of intense
vitality, not, indeed, that all parts of her
surface are moved at this present time by
what Humboldt called "the reaction of
her interior" In this respect, doubtless,
changes slowly take place, the region of
| disturbance becoming after many centu-
ries region of rest, and vice versa.
But regarding the earth as a whole, we
find reason for believing that she still has
abundant life in her. The astronomer
who should perceive, even with the aid
Of the most powerful telescope, the signs
of any change in another planet MARS,
for example, our nearest neighbor among
the superior planets, the progress of the
change being actually discernble as he
watched, would certainly conclude that
that planet was moved by mighty inter
nal forces. Now, it is not too much to
say, though at first it may perhaps seem
81, that the mighty sea-wave which, on
May 10, rushed in upon the shores of the
group of Sandwich islands, would have
been discernible from Venus, supposing
an observer there had been watching the
earth with telescope as powerful as the
best yet made on this earth, The wave
was caused, as we know, bya tremendous
disturbance in Peru a few hours earlier
Here, at least, was the centre Of subter-
ranean action, for land wave also travel
ed from that region along the Pacific
coast of Mexico, and was felt in the Sand
wich isles, where the KiIanea volcano was
set III motion almost at the same time
that the sea-wave came in. But there
can be no doubt whatever that as in the
case Of the great Peruvian earthquake Of
! August, 1868, the sea-wave had its origin
not in the local subterranean disturb
ances, but in the great upheaval by which
Iquique and other places were destroyed.
We shall, no doubt, hear before long, as
in that case, of the arrival of the great
wave at the Samoa isles, at the japanese
archipelago, on the shores of New Iea-
land, Australia, aud so forth. Now, the
great circular wave which spread on May
10th last from the Peruvian shore as
centre, athwart the entire Pacific, was
probably not felt by single ship in the
open sea, any more than the still vaster
wave of the 18th and 18th Of August,
1868, and for the same reason. With
height of some fifteen feet (or thirty feet
vertical difference between crest and hOl-
low) the wave had yet so gentle a slope
that, though itrushed at the rate of three
or four hundred miles an hour across the
Pacific, the rise and fall Of ship upon its
surface would be altogether impercep-
tible. The great sea-wave, as Mallett
long since pointed out, consists, in the
deep ocean of ga long, low swell ofenor-
nous volume, having an equal slope
before and behind, and that so gentle
that it might pass under ship without
being noticed" And We are told, in fact,
by modern writer's that during the rush
of the great sea-wave across the Pacific on
Aug. l3, II, 1858, though where the
wave reached island shores it seemed as
though the land were first sinking bodily
into the ocean and then rising bodily out
of it, "there was not one among the
hundreds of vessels which were sailing
upon the Pacific when it was traversed
by the sea wave in which any unusual
motion was perceived
How, then, it may be asked, can We
suppose that a wave which was not per-
ceiyed by those actually sailing upon the
ocean traversed by it, could have been
visible with suitable telescope power
from a distant planet? The very cir5um
stance which rendered the rise and fall of
ships upon the sea-waves of 1868 and OF
last May imperceptible, assures us that
the progress of the wave would so have
been visible. Besides itsenormous range
in length, for when it struck the Sand
wich isles its crest must have formed the
arc of a great curve, having for radius
the distance of sixty-three hundred miles,
separating that group from Peru, the
wave had great BREADTH otherwise, its
height being about thirty feet, the rapid
advance of the wave would have caused
rapid rise and fall, instead ola slow mo-
ti0n only discernible along the shore
lines. Probably the distance from val
ley to valley, on either side fthe mighty
crest of the wave, was not less than two
hundred miles in the open sea. So far
as mere dimensions, then, are concerned,
the great wave would certainly have
been visible from a planet placed as
Venus is when most tavorably situated
for observing the earth. To show this, it
is only necessary to point out that Venus
is then much nearer to us than Mars ever
is, that the entire diameter OF Mars is but
about forty.fve hundred miles, while the
radius OF the great wave, when it reached
the Sandwich isles, was fully six thou
sand miles, and that its probable breadth
of two hundred miles very far exceeds the
breadth OF many of the well.known
mark ings upon the planet Mars.
But it may be asked how the wave
would become discernible at all viewed
as it were, from above. How sheuld an
observer in Venus know that the highest
part OF the wave was thirty feet or NEAR
er to him than the hollow of the valleys on
either side of it? The way in which the
wave would become visible corresponds
in some degree to the way in which those
strong radiations which extend from sew
eral of the lunar craters are visible,
though they have very little elevation,
cast no perceptible shadows and are
many of them undiscernible when other
lunar features are clearly seen, and be-
come discernible only when those other
features are scarcely visible at all. Tn.
der the suns rays, the two opposite faces
of the advancing waves would be differ.
emily illuminated. One face, hundred
miles broad, be it remembered, would
catch the light more fully than the ocean
AS yet undisturbed, while the other
would catch the light less fully. Thus
the mighty arc of the wave would appear
as a double arc, one,half of its breadth
being bright, the other (relatiyely) dark.