Scientific American Explores Physics Behind North End's Great Molasses Flood of 1919

A new article published this week by Scientific American takes a look at the science behind the Great Molasses Flood, which swept through the North End on Jan. 15, 1919 leaving 21 people dead and about 150 injured.

In a piece posted Aug. 10 on the magazine’s website, the author examines how a substance known for its sluggishness—ever heard the phrase “slow as molasses”?—could surge so quickly and cause so much damage in the streets of Boston.

Author Ferris Jabr looks at the qualities of molasses and how it behaved much differently than water after the five-story metal tank it was stored in ripped apart that fatal winter day.

Molasses, the author explains, is a “non-Netownian fluid,” so its viscosity—or put simply, its visual thickness—depends on the forces applied to it, making the wave of molasses more devastating than that of a typical tsunami, Jabr writes.

Read more about physics and the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 at scientificamerican.com.