Champ
"20-foot serpent thick as a barrel and a head like a horse"
claims Samuel de Champlain and thus, July 1609 marked the first
recorded sighting of the monster of Lake Champlain, aka Champ.
Since that time, hundreds of sightings have been cataloged.
Some suggest the beast is a surviving prehistoric plesiosaur,
others are more skeptical. | Well,
you see, it's just the water sloshing. (0.0K) |
Seiche
Scientist refer to a water slosh as a seiche [sigh shh]
except if it is really big, then it is called a tsunami. A seichi
is simply a standing wave in water, similar to the standing
wave in air inside musical instruments.
To model the seiche of Lake Champlain, simplify the lake into
two layers, the warm top layer and the cold bottom layer.
Prevailing winds push top-layer water up the lake. When the
wind stops, the excess water will slosh back and forth at
the resonant frequency of the lake. The first-order frequency
equation for a closed lake is: (0.0K),
where g is the acceleration of gravity, h is the depth of
the waving layer, and L is the length of the lake. | (8.0K)
The
Plesiosaur was last seen
65 million years ago maybe.
Model
of Lake Champlain | | | Epilimnion
warm, top layer;
extends down 65 feet | Hypolimnion
cold, dense water;
up to 400 feet deep |
|