Diversion Surface Tides at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Because internal tides are much too large to be caused by the tide-producing forces of the sun and moon, they are believed to be generated by the diversion surface tides of surface tides. In theory, significant fractions of internal tides could be formed by the scattering of surface tides at the continental margins. A definitive experiment to investigate this idea was planned at the University of Washington for late 1968. Also being studied as a possible source of internal tide motion was the scattering of surface tides by such bottom irregularities as seamounts, which are isolated "mountains" that rise from the sea floor.

Neap tides, the lowest high tides and the highest low tides, occur when the Sun's pull is at right angles to that of the Moon. They happen at the time of the Moon's first and last quarters. Resonant tides occur when the tidal waves 'reflected' from the shore meet and reinforce the next ones sweeping in. They happen in the North Sea and the English Channel. Spring tides are the highest high tides and the lowest low tides. They occur about twice a month when the Sun and Moon line up and jointly The connection between the Moon and the tides has been known since

Tides are alternate rises and falls of the sea's surface, caused chiefly by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun [6]. The tidal effect of the sun is only 46.6 per cent that of the moon. Tides are also affected by the shapes of ocean basins and land masses. The moon's gravitational pull makes the waters of the earth bulge outwards when the moon is overhead at any meridian. Another bulge occurs on the opposite side of the earth at the same time. Because the moon orbits the earth once every 24 hours 50 minutes, it causes two high tides and two low tides in that period.