Cornish tsunami triggers multiple explanations

Daily Mail : Earlier this week a small tsunami struck off the Cornish coast of England. Just before it struck, people along the coastline reported that the air went unnaturally still and their hair “stood on end.” Several theories have been proposed to explain the phenomenon. One is that the tsunami was caused by either a small earthquake or an undersea landslide. That precipitating event could have induced rock vibrations that generated a powerful electrical charge. “It’s called the piezoelectric effect,” said Chris Shepherd of the UK’s Institute of Physics. Quartz crystals, present in the ancient rocks in and around Cornwall, could generate a high voltage if squeezed. Intriguingly, surges in electrical charge in the air occurred three days before the March earthquake that caused the massive tsunami in Japan, and before the 2007 earthquake in Haiti. Another theory is that the great stresses that have built up before a quake cause the release of large amounts of radioactive radon gas from deep in the ground; the radioactivity from the gas ionizes the air. Yet another explanation rejects the idea of an earthquake having occurred and proposes instead that Cornwall experienced a seiche , a freak wave that can occur in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water, as in a wine glass which resonates when its rim is rubbed (see also today’s News Pick on Tibetan singing bowls).