12.15.06
Today’s mystery writing term: Seiche
Examine the photograph above. Now examine the photograph below. They were taken just fifteen minutes apart last summer on the shore of Lake Superior in front of our cabin about six miles west of Ontonagon, Michigan.
That’s about an eighteen-inch difference in the water level. Tide? No, a seiche, pronounced “saysh” or, in Upper Michigan argot, “slosh.”
Seiches are rapid oscillations in lake water levels caused by prolonged strong winds or changes in atmospheric pressure. They force the water to rise on the downwind shore and drop on the upwind shore, rocking rhythmically back and forth like waves sloshing from side to side in a bathtub.
Most Great Lakes seiches are non-events, like the one in the photos, and are barely noticed. But they can be destructive. In 1995 a three-foot seiche on Lake Superior caused boats to hang crazily from their docks on mooring lines, and in 1954 a ten-foot seiche on Lake Michigan drowned eight people fishing off piers in the Chicago area.
Now what does all this have to do with mystery writing? Easy. In a forthcoming Steve Martinez whodunit a corpse weighted down with stones is suddenly going to be exposed to the view of horrified onlookers by an outgoing seiche . . .
