TIDES S K MANOCHA

(Note – first read the content under the topic - Moon, as given in the second
part of this handout)

Tides

• The periodic rise and fall in the level of the coastal water in the oceans
and seas is known as tides.
• Tides are produced as a gravitational interaction of the earth, moon, and
sun.
• Although enormously larger than the moon, the sun is so very much
farther from the earth, its tide-producing power is only five-elevenths
(about 45%) that of the moon.
• The rise of seawater and its movement towards the coast is called tide
and the resultant high-water level is known as High Tide Water (a rising
tide is also called a flood tide). The fall of seawater and its movement
towards the sea is called Ebb and the resultant low water level is called
Low Tide Water (a falling tide is an ebb tide). The vertical difference
between high and low tide water levels is called the Tidal Range/Tidal
Amplitude.
• The moon always controls the time at which low and high waters occur,
whereas the sun’s effect is to modify the tidal range/amplitude greatly
at different times in the lunar or synodic month (refer to the section on
Moon).
• The sea waves generated by tides are called tidal waves.
• The highest tides occur where Open Ocean (away from the coast) water
is forced into partially enclosed gulfs or bays. The Bay of Fundy in Nova
Scotia records the greatest tidal range/amplitude on the earth (a
difference of about 16 metres between low and high tide water levels).
• TIDES ALSO EXIST IN LARGE LAKES BUT THE TIDAL RANGE/AMPLITUDE IS
SMALL, MAKING TIDES DIFFICULT TO DISTINGUISH FROM CHANGES
CAUSED BY WIND.
• In some coastal areas there is a regular pattern of one high tide and one
low tide each day; this is a diurnal tide. In other areas there is a cyclic
high water-low water sequence that is repeated twice in one day; this is
a semi-diurnal tide. In a semi-diurnal tidal pattern, both high tides reach
about the same height, and both low tides drop to about the same level
with each cycle. A tide in which the high tides regularly reach different
 heights and the low tides drop regularly to different levels is called a
mixed tide.
• Tides are complex and they vary from place to place, because of:
a) the movement of moon in relation to the earth
b) changes in positions of the sun and the moon in relation to the earth
c) uneven distribution of water on the earth’s surface
d) irregularities in the configuration of oceans
• The greatest tidal range (in other words, the highest tide) occurs when
the three bodies are positioned in a straight line, which usually occurs
twice a month near the times of the full moon and new moon. When
thus aligned, the joint gravitational pull of the sun and moon is along the
same line, so that the combined pull is at a maximum. This is true both
when the moon is between the earth and the sun, and when the earth
is between the moon and the sun. In either case, this is a time of higher
than usual tides, called spring tides (Spring Tides – Tides of unusually
great range/amplitude which occur about twice a month (every 14.75
days) at New Moon and Full Moon, when moon and sun are in
conjunction and opposition, respectively) - Refer to the sketches
• When the sun and moon are located at right angles to one another with
respect to the earth, their individual gravitational pulls are diminished
because they are now pulling at right angles to each other. This right
angle pulling results in a lower than normal tidal range/amplitude called
a neap tide (Neap Tides – When the moon and sun are in quadrature, in
the phases of first and third quarters, the sun’s tide producing force
tends to balance out that of the moon, causing tides of unusually small
range/amplitude). Neap tides are about 20% less than the average;
spring tides are about 20% greater than the average.
• Perigean and Apogean Tides – When the moon is at its perigee in its
orbit (nearest the earth), its tide-producing power is markedly greater
than average and results in Perigean Tides which are 15-20% greater
than average. The time interval from perigee to perigee is 27.5 days.
When the moon is at apogee (farthest from the earth), tides are about
20% less than average and are known as Apogean Tides.
• On occasions, when Spring Tides coincide with Perigean Tides, the tidal
range/amplitude is of course, abnormally great, but when Neap Tides
and Apogean Tides occur together, the tidal range/amplitude is
abnormally small.
• River Tides – Many of the world’s great rivers experience tides in their
lower parts (near the mouth) and are known as tidal rivers. This
condition has resulted where the coastal area has recently subsided, or
 the ocean level risen, causing the lower part of the river to be drowned
in the ocean. In a strict sense, such water bodies are not rivers, but are
arms of the sea or estuaries (Estuary – the tidal mouth of a river where
the saltwater of the tides meets the fresh water of the river).
• Tidal Bores – When a tidal wave enters an estuary, the wave increases in
height as the estuary becomes increasingly shallow and narrow.
Ultimately, the wave breaks and forms a wall of foaming water which
often surges forward at several kilometers per hour. This usually
happens when the tidal wave meets a river. The famous examples of the
rivers where bores occur – Amazon, Hooghly, Tsien-Tang-Kiang and
Colorado. Bores occur in rivers which have large funnel-shaped estuaries,
where there is a large tidal range/amplitude, and which face the
direction of tidal surge.
• Direct and Indirect High Tides – The water level rise on the side directly
facing the moon is called Direct High Tide, whereas the rise on the
opposite side is called Indirect High Tide (refer to the sketches)
• While the earth turns, the Moon is also moving eastward along its orbit
about the earth. After 24 hours the earth point that began directly under
the moon is no longer directly under the moon. The earth must turn
further more (by 12 degrees) to bring the starting point on earth back in
line with the moon. Therefore, a lunar tidal day is not 24 hours long,
but 24 hours and 50 minutes. This also explains why corresponding tides
arrive at nay location about one hour later each day.
• Because it takes 24 hours and 50 minutes for the earth to turn once,
with reference to moon, two High Waters and two Low Waters will
occur during this period. Successive High Waters, therefore, occur about
12.5 hours apart, and the interval between High Water and the next Low
Water is about 6.25 hours.
• Effects – a. tides can cause damage to property and life along the sea-
coast; b. rising tides may help the moving ships to reach the harbours in
many shallow seas; c. tides may be useful for ships to cover large parts
of their voyages without costing much; d. tides can be used for power
generation (for power generation, there should be at least 5 metre tidal
range); e. tides take away the waste lying at the harbours to make them
clean; f. tides may also take away the materials brought by rivers to their
mouths and hence prevent siltation of the estuary; g. tides are helpful
for fishing activity, especially by the small fishermen, who cannot afford
going far into the seas.
• When tides are studied mathematically in response to the laws of
physics, they are known as equilibrium tides. To simplify the study of
 relationships between the oceans and the moon and the sun, this
method uses tides on an Earth model covered with a uniform layer of
water.
• The tides are also studied as they occur naturally; these tides are called
dynamic tides. Oceanographers study dynamic tides modified by the
landmasses, the geometry of the ocean basins, and the earth’s rotation.
• When water moves into a coastal region on the rising tide and out of it
on the falling tide, tidal currents form. These currents may be extremely
swift and dangerous as they move through narrow channels into large
bays and harbours. When the tidal current changes from an ebb to a
flood or vice versa, there is a period of slack water, during which the
tidal currents slow, stop, and then reverse. Slack water may be the only
time that a vessel can safely navigate a narrow channel.

MOON

• The moon is the earth’s constant companion in space held by our

planet’s gravity. It revolves the earth in a slightly elliptical orbit - the
distance from the earth varying from 348285 km surface to surface
perigee to 398587 km apogee.
• The moon, like earth, is 4.6 billion years old. Moon shines by reflecting
light emitted by the sun.
• Near side and Far side – The moon spins on its axis in exactly the same
time that it takes to complete an orbit of the earth. The same side
always faces us and the far side remains invisible.
• The moon wobbles on its axis, and at some places on its orbit, it surges
forward or slows down. As a result, we can actually see, about 59% of
its surface from the earth.
• Moon revolves round the earth every 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 15
seconds (Sidereal month).
• Moon moves from west to east in the sky but appears to move in the
opposite direction because earth’s rotation rate is much faster than the
rate at which the moon revolves around the earth.
• Phases of the Moon – As the moon orbits the earth, it receives light
from the sun, and a changing portion of its illuminated face is visible
from the earth, these portions are the moon’s phases. During the time
the moon takes to orbit the earth, we see it change from a skinny
crescent to a full globe and back again. These apparent changes are
referred to as the phases of the moon. The changes in aspect seen from
 the earth are due to changes in the relative positions of the earth,
moon, and the sun – the sequence being:
a. New Moon – Invisible to faintly visible, the moon lying between the
earth and the sun (Conjunction), so that viewed from the earth, it is not
illuminated by the sun’s light (although it may reflect a faint of light from
the earth).
b. The First Quarter (Quadrature) – When the moon has moved through
about one-quarter of its orbit round the earth, and it appears as a semi-
circle, having grown from a Crescent.
c. Gibbous Moon – The phase reached when the moon has passed
through another eighth of its orbit, so that three-quarters of its face as
seen from the earth is illuminated by the sun.
d. Full Moon – When the earth lies between the moon and the sun
(Opposition), so that viewed from the earth, the whole face of the moon
is illuminated by light from the sun.
• From New Moon to Full Moon, the moon is said to be waxing
(increasing); and from Full Moon to New Moon, it is waning
(decreasing). A waxing or waning moon, seems to bulge on the side
nearest the sun, so it is often called Gibbous.
• Lunar or Synodic Month – One revolution related to the sun on an
average 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes (that is the time it takes for moon
to go through all its phases (one Full Moon to the next).
• Syzgy – In astronomy, the point at which two heavenly bodies are in
conjunction or opposition – applied particularly, to the point, when the
sun, moon, and earth are in straight line (thus, coinciding with the New
Moon and Full Moon, as seen from the earth).