Tide is the rise and fall of sea levels due to gravitational forces of the sun and the moon. Due to Earth's rotation, high and low tide are usually 6 hours 25 minutes apart.
An ocean current is a steady flow of seawater generated by winds, temperature gradients and other physical phenomena. Ocean currents affect climate both in the sea and inland. Some currents are seasonal.
Understand
[edit]Tides are only noticeable in sea water. Although freshwater lakes are subject to the same gravitational forces, the water cannot move a great enough distance for you to see a tide.
The times and magnitudes of tides are predictable, but predictions more than a week or two ahead are often only available if you pay for a nautical almanac book or subscription. Tide predictions for the next few days can be found in some weather forecasts for coastal areas. If you know the tide times today (from a forecast or by observation), then you can expect the tides to be 50 minutes later tomorrow. Tide times vary along a coast in repeatable way, and so tables of mean tidal difference are published to tell you how many minutes high tide is earlier or later than a regional major port. The magnitude of tides vary over a lunar month with the biggest difference between high and low tide ("spring tide") during full moons, and the smallest two weeks later ("neep tides") during quarter
Destinations
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Atlantic Canada and Britain and Ireland have locations of extreme tidal range.
- 1 Bay of Fundy. The world's highest mean tidal range.
- 2 Ungava Bay (Nunavut, Canada).
- 3 Bristol Channel, United Kingdom. Famous for the Severn Bore.
- 4 Saltstraumen (Bodø, Norway). The world's strongest maelstrom (tidal whirlpool), with some of the best fishing in the world. free.
- 5 Gulf of Corryvreckan (near Isle of Jura, United Kingdom). The third largest tidal whirlpool, which can be seen from the coast or experienced in special small boat cruises.
