Learning Corner

Katherine Raz again. You haven't posted the weather in two days now. It's after 10 am on Friday! I'll forgive you if you can tell me about "storm surges" in the Great Lakes. I believe they're called, "saitches"? (No idea how to spell it.)

'Sloshing', that inelegant term with its connotations of muddy streets and tepid bathwater, is the word that the English language has provided us for describing the motions of water in an enclosed basin. Happily it has been replaced for us by some Swiss scientists who studied the effects of storms on Alpine lakes with the lovely 'seiche' (pronounced saysh). All lakes have constantly occurring minor seiches, but every once in a while a large seiche will occur as a result of a storm surge or an earthquake. In a large seiche the levels of a lake rise and fall dramatically for a few hours, usually resulting in flooding and damage to boats and ports. Apparently seiches are a source of much fascination for a few wave nerds who have posted charts and statistics of famous seiches all over the web. Also, seiches can be used to explain the Loch Ness Monster.