上一篇文章《已夏季了，美國出現罕見的冷鋒！ 再受極地漩渦侵襲？ （下）地磁確認減弱！》，談到今年 6月，由歐洲太空總署（ European Space Agency，ESA）的地磁探測衞星 Swarm，早前探測全球多個地方的地球磁場，發現在過去 6個月有減弱迹象。其中西半球是「重災區」，例如大西洋等地的磁場明顯減弱。
Above: Storm systems growing more intense: A radar image of the storm complex that may have caused the East Coast tsunami.
A storm that blew through earlier this
month might have spurred a rare phenomenon for the East Coast: a tsunami.
The
tsunami was observed June 13 at more than 30 tide gages along the East Coast,
Bermuda and Puerto Rico, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
said. The highest peak amplitude was recorded
in Newport,
R.I, where it reached just under a foot above sea level. Gages in Kiptopeke, Va., and Atlantic City, N.J.,
recorded similar peaks, according to NOAA.
Brian
Coen was spearfishing at Barnegat Inlet in Ocean County, N.J., around 3:30 p.m.
on June 13, when he saw a strong outrush of water as the tide went out,
according to a description provided by NOAA. He said it carried divers over
submerged rocks that serve as a breakwater. The rocks, normally three to four
feet deep, eventually were exposed, he said.
Then, according to NOAA, Coen saw an approximately
6-foot wave come in. It carried the divers back over the breakwater and also
swept three people off rocks that are usually five to six feet above sea level.
Two of them needed medical attention.
Chuck Ebersole, steward at Wickford Yacht
Club in North Kingstown, R.I.,
said he saw a strong current of about 7 knots, or 8 miles per hour, going out
through a channel into Narragansett Bay.
Normally, he said, the current is 1 to 2 miles per hour. The current was so
strong that one large boat pulled its cleat out of the dock, he said.
After a while, the current reversed at the
same speed, he said. A nearby gage recorded that the sea level changed by 1.3
feet.
Scientists are trying to determine the
cause, but NOAA said the tsunami may have been related to a strong storm that
moved through the region and offshore that day. Government forecasters said the
source was complex but that strong atmospheric pressure fluctuations indicate
it was at least partly caused by the weather.
At the yacht club, there was only minor
damage to the dock and two boats, Ebersole said.
“For a little
while there, I thought it might have been some runoff from the storms we had
that week, but it was too much water for that,” he said. “It was very exciting
at the time.”
華盛頓州遠野（Longview）的媒體「遠野每日新聞」（Longview Daily News）昨天報導，俄勒岡州立大學（Oregon State
University ）與美國國家海洋暨大氣總署（NOAA）的研究人員，以2011年3月日本強震引發海嘯導致核災為劃分點，檢測之前之後美國西部海岸所捕捉的魚類。
