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Phenomenon at Loch Ness |
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A skeptical Earth scientist throws more cold water on Scotland's liveliest legend.
The Loch Ness Monster is a well-known, even beloved icon for all kinds of believers and skeptics. Is the legendary Scottish creature merely the roilings of earthquake gas? Not far from Nessie's home lake, a provocative visitor from Italy has argued just that.
The occasion was a great gathering of geoscientists in Edinburgh, Scotland, called Earth System Processes, the first-ever collaboration by the Geological Society of America and the Geological Society of London. Such gatherings are a carnival of science, and the research presented there is fresh, unpublished, speculative, even provocative. Meeting presentations are also considered "gray literature," useful snapshots but not formal publications that are reviewed beforehand by fellow scientists. So the latest Loch Ness theory, presented in a poster session by Luigi Piccardi, is nothing truly serious.
Piccardi has been arguing recently that the mythology and sacred places of the ancient Mediterranean owe a lot to geologic activity, like earthquakes or
the Delphic Oracle. In Edinburgh, Piccardi presented a poster extending that argument to Scotland. The earliest account of the monster in Loch Ness, from the seventh century, refers to the creature's appearance and disappearance being accompanied by shaking. And the lake happens to lie directly upon the active Great Glen earthquake fault. "In this light," goes his reasoning, "many modern eyewitness reports attributed to Nessie may find a simple natural explanation."I think Piccardi's specific argument is wrong, but underneath lies a powerful truth.
It's true that earthquakes affect bodies of water just as they do the solid ground. They create waves, both by directly shaking the water and by dislodging landslides on shore or on the floor of the sea or lake. Objects and gases in the bottom sediment can come to the surface. Quakes also are accompanied by roaring or explosive noises. The seventh-century story could indeed have been prompted by an earthquake. Unfortunately, there aren't any earthquakes associated with the modern sightings of the Loch Ness phenomenon.
A better explanation for the goings-on in Loch Ness is another natural event called seiche ("saysh") that is common in long, cold lakes around the world. Think of a seiche as the giant-size equivalent of what happens when you get out of the bathtub: the water sloshes back and forth smoothly for a long time. Seiches are commonly caused by weather changes, after a sustained wind pushes the water to one side of the lake. When the wind stops, the water moves back and the slow sloshing begins. Seiches also happen from the slowest movements of earthquakes, motions from far-distant events that may be imperceptible to humans. (
Here's an account of a swimming-pool "seiche" caused by the 1989 California earthquake.)Once started, seiches can continue for more than a week, especially hidden internal waves that affect the dense layers of cold water at the lake bottom. Interactions with the bottom topography and surface winds, not to mention wave interferences, are all capable of causing roilings and eruptions in the water. So there's a viable theory alreadyand not just for Nessie, but for the whole
menagerie of "lake monsters" documented in large cold lakes around the world.But to judge from Piccardi's actual poster (
see the abstract here), he argued only that the origin of the monster legend may come from an earthquake. That might be so. What sustains the legend is human nature.Consider how people tend to animate the world: unusual rocks and formations are given names and personalities, even worshiped. Piccardi has followed that insight to good effect in Greece. In
a 2000 article in Geology he outlined the close ties between the temple of Apollo at Delphi, with its celebrated Oracle, and the major active fault directly beneath it. The sounds, smells, and motions of the site made a deep impression on the ancients.At Loch Ness it would be easy for someone to think that motions in the water must be due to a large living creature. As it happens, there is a tradition dating from the earliest peoples of Scotland centered around the water-horse or kelpie. That would be powerful reinforcement, once people had concluded there was a creature in the lake. And who can say which came first, the phenomenon or the agent? I know what I think: We see odd happenings in Loch Ness and make the most satisfying story from them.
Like other scientists' stories, Piccardi's explanation of the Loch Ness monster is only satisfying in an intellectual way. And the ancient ways of seeing the world are still quite alivejust visit my colleagues the UFO Guide and the Paranormal Guide. That is why after all the science meetings are over, Nessie will still have its believers.