Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1890-02-15
Wave Action.
Scientific American.

teresting study. We see the DliioWs
curling toward the shore, then break
the sand and pebbles washing back
with them; who has not noted the
rapid changes of the ocean beach /!
This storm tearing it away, and that
one broadening it out; the gradual
wearing away of the islands along
their seward face, while at the same
time making to leeward, What is the
mean effect of wave action on the con-
tinents is a subject which, for the
most part, has been treated by hydro
graphers like Admiral Davis, Lieuten-
ant Maury and Beautcmps Beaupre'
Now comes geologist, Prof. Shaler,
who, in u recent paper, discusses the
subject from standpoint OF one IA
mIliar with continent formation, that
is to say, from effect to cause as well
as from cause to effect. All the rocks,
he says, bear undeniable evidence that
the sea has swung over them IN The
oscillations of the continent IN its al
ternate uprisings and downsinEings.
All waves, save those coming trom
submarine upheavings, are caused ny
the wind. Wind comes from varia-
tions of temperature, the great trade
winds being an effect of the disparity
between tho heat Of the tropics and
the poles; difference in temperature
between sea and land causing local
winds. You can study wave action
on an ordinary pond. So says the au-
thor. If the shore be shelving one
the waves will topple over, as 90 The
oceans surges and strike their blows.
After an artificial pond has existed for
u short period it is easy to see where
these repeated blows have cut the
earth upon its shelving sides, so as to
form what is called wave scarf, ana
how the process of erosion goes on.
On ordinary soil, even upon rocks OF
moderate hardness, this wave action
combined with the freezing which
takes place in winter, breaks up the
earthly material and bears it outward.
The tops of the waves move more
RAPIDLY than the bottoms, TINS ali
wave-swept shores have an under-cur-
rent movement of their waters, which
sets off from the coast line toward the
deeper waters. Wherever q wave
rolls up on a shore it grinds up GER
tain amount of material. With the
reflux of this surge this material is
carried off TO the edge Of deeper wa
ter, the margin of the surf belt, where
the undertow comes in 10 drag the de-
bris still further from the coast Un-
dertow has no influence near the sur
face, which sets shorcward while it is
pressing seaward. Many lives are
lost at the bathing beaches, he thinks,
because the exhausted swimmer essays
to straggie ashore afoot instead OF
throwing himself out flat in the sur
face waters.
Waves while scarfing beach
against the shore build out a shelf
composed of all the material they had
dragged from the land, save that gone
into complete solution from grinding
BY this he means the outside bar, with
which every bathcr is familiar, the
same being composed of the detritus
Hundreds, indeed thousands of miles
inland are found saudstoues and clay
deposits, which, in nearly all cases, in
dictate the former presence Of the sea,
under which they were formed pre-
cisely as like formations exist to-day
in the outer bars.
One watches the pillows break
against the coast rocks and cliffs. They
seem to make no impression, but the
author says that, should we listen
during the storm, the forceful grind
ing against their bases of the stones
the sea has brought, could be distinct
Is heard. This abrasion goes ON till,
little by little, rocks, lodges, cliffs top
pie over and arc ground up.
BY wave action the continents are
gradually brought to state of level
surfaces, the waste being distributed
into broad plains.
Thus, says Prot. Shaler, on the east
ern shore of North America the waves
are driving the shore inland to the
westward and building on the sea
floor a plain, which is constantly ex-
tending to the eastward. The great
southern plain of the United States,
including parts of the Carolinas,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi aud all
of Florida is a portion of such all
emerged sea bottom, composed Of ma
terial worn from the older parts Of the
continent. Rains act to cut the land
vertically downward, the waves Of
oceans and OF lakes 10 plane them off
horizontally. In GENERAL way the So
lar forces fight against the existence of
all continents and islands. Left TO
themselves, these solar forces would
reduce the earth, in the course OF time,
to the state of universal ocean.