Storm waves move 620-ton boulder

[Still Waters]

Along the rocky coasts of Ireland’s Aran Islands, scientists have found a new illustration of the immense power of ocean waves — and a possible hint of what we should fear if climate change makes coastal storms more intense.

A 620-ton boulder — equivalent in mass to about 90 large African elephants — moved several meters on the island of Inishmore in the winter of 2013-2014 after being slammed by powerful coastal storm waves, according to the researchled by Rónadh Cox, a geoscientist at Williams College. It was just one of more than 1,000 boulders that moved along Ireland’s coasts during the storms, many of them quite large, Cox said. The researchers detected six boulders weighing more than 100 tons and 18 weighing more than 50 tons that had been displaced by waves.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/01/23/storm-waves-moved-this-620-ton-boulder-researchers-say-a-stunning-new-testament-to-the-oceans-power/