Article
Article
Seiche
Article By:
Farmer, David M. Department of the Environment, Institute of Ocean Sciences, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada.
Last reviewed:December 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.612800
A short-period oscillation in an enclosed or semienclosed body of water, analogous to the free oscillation of water in a dish. The initial displacement of water from a level surface can arise from a variety of causes and the restoring force is gravity, which always tends to maintain a level surface. Once formed, the oscillations are characteristic only of the geometry of the basin itself and may persist for many cycles before decaying under the influence of friction. The term “seiche” appears to have been first used to describe the rhythmic oscillation of the water surface in Lake Geneva, which occasionally exposed large areas of the lake bed that are normally submerged. See also: Surface waves
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