The wave from nowhere

摘要

Shortly after 5 pm on 18 November 1929, an earthquake shook Canada's eastern provinces. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, a seismometer needle jumped right off track. Across the Gulf of St Lawrence, on Newfoundland's Burin peninsula, the tremors sent people running into the streets. But for them, worse was to come. Two hours later, 7-metre waves hit the shore, their momentum carrying them as far as 27 metres above the high-tide level. Boats were smashed and quaysides stripped bare. When the waves retreated, 28 were dead or dying and 10,000 were homeless. Then, to add to Burin's woes, a blizzard hit. It would be three days before news of the disaster reached the outside world. Only now do scientists finally understand the cause of the tsunami: a giant landslide, deep beneath the waters of the Grand Banks.