The Loch Ness monster is not a mysterious monster lurking beneath the dark waters of the Scottish lake 鈥� it鈥檚 just earthquake-induced waves according to Luigi Piccardi, an Italian geologist.
Loch Ness lies directly on the Great Glen Fault and Piccardi thinks that subterranean rumblings could kick up the water into a mini tsunami. Those waves would look mysterious in an otherwise calm lake, perhaps making observers think a giant beast was stirring underwater. The waves themselves might even look like the humps of a creature鈥檚 back from a distance.
Piccardi, who works at the Apennine and Perimediterrane Geology Centre in Firenze, Italy came to the idea while searching for information about earthquakes that hit in ancient history. He turned to mythology for hints and was struck by the correlation between earthquakes and the appearance of sea monsters throughout the Mediterranean, as well as in Norway, Iceland, North America and Scotland.
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Roger Scrutton, a geophysicist from Edinburgh University, cautions that you would need a hefty displacement of ground under the water to create such waves, and thinks the shape of the lake might dampen them. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 not the right frequency it would just die out,鈥� he says.
But John Dewey, a tectonics researcher from the University of California at Santa Cruz says 鈥淚t鈥檚 much more likely than an ichthyosaurus 鈥� it seems sensible to me.鈥�
Violent commotion
Piccardi says that about 250 of the 3000 documented sightings of the creature popularly known as Nessie can鈥檛 be explained by simple explanations like tree branches or witnesses who had drunk too much whisky.
Most of these sightings are of violent water commotion or the humps of the beast鈥檚 back. Piccardi also notes that texts from the 7th Century AD describe the beast as arriving with 鈥渟trong shaking鈥� and leaving 鈥渟haking herself鈥�.
The most famous spate of Nessie sightings happened from in 1933 鈥� a relatively large earthquake followed in August 1934. Piccardi speculates that early rumblings preceding that quake could have stirred up the waters.
鈥淚鈥檓 very positive,鈥� Piccardi says about his theory. 鈥淭he data is very clear.鈥� As for those who hold out in their beliefs that Nessie is alive, he adds: 鈥淏iological laws say you can鈥檛 have one animal living for 1500 years.鈥�
However, veteran Nessie seeker Steve Feltham, who next month will have been watching from the banks of Loch Ness for 10 years, is not convinced: 鈥淓arthquakes can explain some of it, but you are still left with the bulk of the evidence. Long storms can also set up rolling waves, but I鈥檓 convinced it is an animate object 鈥� maybe 20 or 30 of them.鈥�
Piccardi presented his findings at an Earth Systems Processes meeting in Edinburgh.