Abstract
A GREAT tidal wave occurred on the Solway estuary on the night of December 9-10, when 3,000 acres between the Rivers Sark and Esk were under water and Sark Toll Bar marriage house was isolated, while 7-ft. fences on Sark Foot farms were submerged. The tide was 25 ft. and was made abnormal and destructive by the wind that came in the wake of a great tidal wave. On the Scottish side the floods reached the highest recorded level since 1900, cattle and sheep were drowned, farmhouses isolated. A 9-ft. embankment was broken in two places along the River Annan and houses were flooded in the Scottish town of Annan. It might have proved more costly but for the fact that because of the mild weather few farmers had brought their sheep down from the mountains to the estuary marshes. The Solway Firth has a history of great tides serious to local farming. Some years ago a tide with less water than that of December 9 killed nearly 1,000 sheep, owing to all the winter flocks being on the marshes. In 1942 the Solway had its usual two high tides of the year, in August and November, and the December one was unexpected.
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The Solway Tides. Nature 151, 51 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151051a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151051a0