During the winter of 2013 - 2014 , the UK and Ireland were buffet by a number of unusuallypowerful violent storm , stimulate widespread flood , landslides , and coastal evacuations . But the impingement of the storm season stretch far beyond its force on urban areas , as a new study inEarth - Science Reviewsdetails . As we spotted onBoing Boing , geoscientists from Williams College in Massachusetts find that the storms had an enormous influence on the distant , uninhabited coast of western Ireland — one that designate the sheer baron of ocean waves in a whole new ignitor .
The rugged terrain of Ireland ’s western coast includes mammoth sea bowlder located just off a coastline protected by high-pitched , exorbitant cliff . These monolithic rocks can weigh hundreds of tons , but a impregnable - enough wave can dislodge them , cast them out of the ocean entirely . In some cases , these boulders are now located more than 950 feet inland . Though previous research has hypothesized that it often takes tsunami - effectiveness waves to move such heavy rocks onto land , this cogitation finds that the severe storms of the 2013 - 2014 season were more than capable .
Studying boulder deposit in Ireland ’s County Mayo and County Clare , the Williams College team recorded two massive boulders — one weighing around 680 heaps and one weighing about 520 lashings — move significantly during that winter , wobble more than 11 and 13 feet , respectively . That may not sound like a significant distance at first glance , but for some perspective , consider that a blue giant weighs about 150 heaps . The magnanimous of these two boulders weighs more thanfourblue whales .
modest boulders ( comparatively speaking ) travel much further . The biggest bowlder motion they take note was more than 310 feet — for a boulder that count more than 44 tons .
These boulder deposits " stand for the inland transfer of extraordinary wave energies , " the researchers write . " [ Because they ] record the mellow energy coastal processes , they are key elements in trying to model and forecast interaction between waves and coasts . " Those simulation are becoming more important as climate change increases the frequency and severeness of storms .
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