Tides

 Tides are periodic, short-term changes in the height of the ocean surface at a
particular place caused by a combination of the gravitational force of the moon
and the sun and the motion of Earth
 Wavelength of tides ~ half of the Earth’s circumference
 Shallow-water waves
 Forced waves (after they are formed, wind waves, seiches, and tsunamis are
free waves; i.e. they are no longer being acted upon by the force that created
them and do not require a maintaining force to keep them in motion)
 A central finding of Isaac Newton
o The pull of gravity between 2 bodies is proportional to the masses of the
bodies but inversely proportional to the square of the distance between
them
o F = G (m1m2 / r2)

F = gravitational force
G = universal gravitational constant
m1m2 = masses of the 2 bodies
r = distance between their centers

o Tides vary inversely with the cube of the distance from the earth’s center
to the center of the tide-generating object
o Distance is thus even more important in this relationship, which may be
expressed as
o T = G (m1m2 / r3)

T = tide-generating force
G = universal gravitational constant

o The sun is about 27 million times more massive than the moon, but the
sun is about 387 times farther away than the moon, so the sun’s
influence on the tides is only about half that of the moon’s

1. Tide patterns
 Tides behave differently in different places
 3 basic types of tides
o diurnal tide (once daily)
o semidiurnal tide (twice daily)
o mixed semidiurnal tide (with diurnal inequality)

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  In some coastal waters a regular pattern occurs of one high tide and one low
tide each day (diurnal tide)
 In other areas, a cyclic high water-low water sequence is repeated twice in 1
day (semidiurnal tide)
o The 2 high tides reach about the same height and the 2 low tides drop to
about the same level
o Semidiurnal mixed tide- when the 2 high tides regularly reach different
heights and the low tides drop to different levels
 Amphidromic point- the node near the center of an ocean basin; a no-tide point
in the ocean around which the tidal crest rotates through one tidal cycle

2. Tide levels
 High water- the greatest height to which the tide rises on any day
 Low water- the lowest point to which the tide drops
 In a mixed tide system
o Higher high water and lower high water
o Higher low water and lower low water
 Average (or mean) tide levels- the average tidal measurements taken over
many years
o Gives the local mean tide level
o Also calculates the high-water and low-water levels as mean high water
and mean low water
 In navigational charts, depths are measured in average low-water references
o Important to safe navigation
o Assures the sailor that the actual depth of the water is greater than that
on the chart
 Tidal datum- zero reference; usually equal to mean low water
 In regions of mixed tides, mean lower low water is used as the tidal datum
 Minus tide- results when the low-tide level falls below the mean value used as
the tidal datum
o A hazard to boaters
o Used by clam differs (gleaners) and marine biology students
 Flood tide- rising tide; as the water level along the shore increases in height,
the tide is said to be rising or flooding
 Ebb tide- falling tide; when the water level drops, the tide is falling or ebbing

3. Tidal currents
 Currents are associated with the rising and falling of the tide in coastal waters
(called tidal currents) as water flows into or out of bays and harbors

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 o Flood current- water rushing into an enclosed area because of the rise in
sea level as a tidal crest approaches
o Ebb current- water rushing out because of the fall in sea level as the tidal
trough approaches
o Slack water- a time of no currents; occurs at high and low tide when the
current changes direction
 May be extremely swift and dangerous as they move the water into a region on
the flood tide and out of the region on the ebb tide; sometimes in excess of 5
m/s (10 knots)
 Slack water- a period when the tide turns or changes from an ebb to a flood or
vice versa; the tidal currents slow and then reverse

4. Tides in confined basins

 In small areas such as lakes, the tidal range is small
 The largest tidal ranges occur at the edges of the largest ocean basins,
especially in bays or inlets that concentrate tidal energy because of their shape
 Tidal bore- will form in some inlets (and rivers) exposed to great tidal
fluctuation
o A true tidal wave occurs
 A steep wave moving upstream generated by the action of the
tidal crest in the enclosed area of a river mouth
 The confining river mouth forces the tide wave to move toward
land at a speed that exceeds the theoretical shallow-water wave
speed for that depth
 The forced wave then breaks, forming a spilling wave front that
moves upriver
 Most are less than 1 m high, although bores in China’s Qiantang
River may be up to 8 m high and move at 11 m/s

General information
 Largest wave by wavelength: tides (wavelength is half of earth’s
circumference)
 Fastest wave: tides (crests can move at speeds up to 1600 kph)
 Largest wave height
o For wind waves: probably develop in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
 Caused by very strong winds and multiple storms
 In 1916, Frederic Worsley, captain of Ernest Shackleton’s ship
Endurance encountered tremendous waves greater than he had
encountered in a lifetime at sea- more than 30 m high
o Tsunamis: can be higher

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  50 m in Lituya Bay, Alaska
 530 m wave formed briefly as water surged up the opposite side of
Lituya Bay on July 9, 1958 (it was more like a titanic splash than
a tsunami)
 The greatest height recorded for a tsunami in the ocean: 84 m
(1971 off Ishigaki, Japan)
 About 66 million years ago, a 91m tsunami was believes to have
occurred on the coast of what is now Texas
 Tides are also present in solid Earth
o 25-30 cm average
o Tidal variability in the height of the atmosphere has been measured in
miles
 Each molecule of water (even in a glass of water) responds to the same
planetary forces that affect molecules in the ocean

 The tidal day

o While the Earth turns eastward upon its axis, the Moon is moving in the
same direction along its orbit about the Earth
o After 24 h the Earth point that began directly under the moon us no
longer directly under the Moon
o The Earth must turn for an additional fifty minutes (about 12°) to bring
the starting point on the Earth back in line with the Moon
o Therefore, a tidal day is not 24 h long but 24 h and 50 min long
 This explains why corresponding tides arrive at any location about
1 h later each day

 The sun tide

o Altho the Moon plays the greater role in the tide-producing process, the
Sun produces its own tide wave
 It’s tide-raising force is only 46% that of the Moon
o The Earth revolves on its axis with respect to the Sun on the average 24
h

 Spring tides and neap tides

o The Moon orbit requires 29 ½ days relative to a point on the Earth
o During this period, the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon move in and out of
phase with each other
 New Moon: Moon and Sun are on the same side of the Earth

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  The high tides (or bulges) produced independently by the
Moon and by the Sun coincide
 The 2 wave forms produced are added together
 Tides of maximum height and depression, or tides with the
greatest range between high water and low water are
produced
 These tides are known as spring tides
 The vertical displacement (or amplitude) of the tide is ½ the
range (the distance above or below the mean tide level)
 Moon’s First Quarter (after 1 week): moon moved eastward along
its orbit (about 12° per day)
 Moon is located approximately at right angles (90°) to the
line of centers of the Earth and Sun
 The crest (bulge) of the Moon tide is at right angles to the
tide wave created by the Sun
 The crests of the Moon tide will coincide with the troughs
of the Sun tide (the same with the Sun’s tide crests and the
Moon’s tide troughs)
 The crests and troughs tend to cancel each other out
 The range between high water and low water is small,
producing low-amplitude neap tides
 Full Moon (after 1 week): Sun, Moon and Earth are again lined up
 Will produce crests that coincide and tides with the greatest
range between high and low waters, or spring tides
 Last Quarter (after 1 week)
 Will produce another neap tide
o The tides follow a 4-week cycle of changing tidal amplitude
 Spring tides occur every 2 weeks and a period of neap tides
occurring in between
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