Several Interesting Facts About The Earth\’s Tides

Tides are not caused by the direct pull of the moon\’s gravity. The moon is pulling upwards on the water while the earth is pulling down. The Moon has a slight advantage and thus we have tides.

Since the moon moves round the Earth, Tides aren\’t always in the same place at the same time everyday. Hence, every day, the times for low and high tides change by approximately fifty minutes.

Offshore, in the deep sea, the range in tides is mostly fewer than 1.6 feet

The gravitational force of the Moon is one ten-millionth that of Earth, but when you blend other forces such as the earth\’s centrifugal force produced by its spin, you get tides.

The sun\’s gravitational force on the earth is only 46 p.c that of the moon. Making the moon the most vital factor for the making of tides.

The surf increases when it reaches a beach, and the tide increases. In bays and estuaries, this effect is increased. (In the Bay of Fundy, tides have a range of well over fifty feet)

The highest tides in the world are at the Bay of Fundy in Canada.

When the Moon is at first quarter or last quarter phase (meaning that it\’s situated at right angles to the Earth-Sun line), the Sun and Moon meddle with one another in producing tidal bulges and tides are usually weaker; these are called neap tides.

Whenever the Moon, Earth and Sun are aligned Spring tides occur. When the sun and moon are on the same side of the earth (New Moon) or when the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the earth (Full Moon) the gravitational pull of the sun adds to that of the moon causing maximum tides.

Spring tides and neap tide levels are about 20% higher or lower than average.

As the earth revolves on its axis the moon completes one orbit in our sky each 25 hours (not to be confused with moon\’s 27 day orbit around the earth), we get 2 tidal peaks as well as 2 tidal troughs. These events are separated by about 12 hours.

The Bay of Fundy isn\’t just the spot with the world\’s highest tides. The bay also has various other natural attractions, for example: fundy national park, tidal bores, reversing falls and many more…