Earthquake Disturbances of the Tides on the Coasts of India

Abstract

FOR some years past tidal stations have been established at various points on the coasts of India, from Kurrachee round viâ Cape Comorin and Adam's Straits to Calcutta, and on to Rangoon and Moulmein; also beyond these points, eastwards at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, and westwards at Aden; but not anywhere in the Island of Ceylon, which happens—unfortunately for the interests of science—to be outside the administration of the Government of India. At each of the tidal stations an observatory has been established, containing a self-registering tide-gauge, and all requisite meteorological instruments, with a clerk in charge who tends the instruments, sets the driving clocks to true time—usually received telegraphically from Madras—and sends in daily reports to the supervising officer. That officer exercises a general superintendence over all the tidal stations, inspects them periodically, collates and analyses the observations, and deduces from them the values of the “tidal constants” for each port or point of observation; these constants enable future tides to be predicted, and tide tables to be prepared for the guidance of mariners; they are also otherwise valuable, in that they have thrown light on the question of the earth's rigidity, and on various other matters of scientific interest.