BOMBS AT BIKINI 



in that direction. The base surge is the newest menace 

 wrung from within the atomic nucleus. 



WATER WAVES 



Water waves were another type of unleashed fury. 

 When the millions of tons of water were ripped from 

 the lagoon, an enormous cavity was produced, extend- 

 ing probably to the very bottom of the lagoon. Almost 

 immediately the surrounding water rushed madly to 

 fill the cavity; actually, it over-filled the cavity and 

 produced a great mound. The mound then sank slowly 

 to the normal level of the lagoon. This rapid dying off 

 of the central oscillation in the water probably consti- 

 tuted the first experimental verification of the compli- 

 cated mathematical theory (Cauchy-Poisson equation). 



From the birth and death of the giant mound, the 

 water waves were formed — majestic waves higher 

 than had ever before been produced by man and per- 

 haps greater than Nature herself ever raised.* No one 

 knows how great the waves were near the Zeropoint, 

 or whether there actually was inside this cauldron 

 anything that could properly be called a wave. But 

 near the edge of the column, say 1000 ft. from the 

 Zeropoint, the waves were very real. Photographs 

 show that the highest wave was eighty to one hundred 

 ft. from trough to crest. The wave heights were in 



* Possibly greater- waves were produced when, in 1883, the 

 island of Krakatao exploded. 



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