A freak wave Monday in Boothbay Harbor, believed generated by the high winds yesterday, stood up high enough to do some damage to a dock.
Marine scientists speculate on what could have caused the tide anomaly, but are not certain without further study into the incident.
Dr. Huijie Xue, Professor of Oceanography at the University of Maine in Orono who does research at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, said it could have been a rogue wave that occurs from time to time in the ocean.
Dr. David Townsend, also Professor of Oceanography at UMO, said he thinks it could be a seiche, which forms when high winds force a volume of water into an area then subsides, causing sloshing back and forth, creating a high standing wave.
However, Xue said a seiche more likely occurs in an enclosed body of water but it could be that. She would have to examine the frequency of the currents before a determination.
“You see them in lakes when high wind tends to push water at the end of the lake,” Townsend said. “This has happened before in Boothbay Harbor.”
Townsend said such occurrences are fairly common around the world and no doubt some of the old-timers in Boothbay Harbor have seen them.
