The small city of Sandusky occupies the southeastern shore of the bay. The most striking aspect of this image is the flow of the brown water in and out of the mouth of the bay. Slight movement of lake surface water, driven mainly by wind, causes a small ebb and flow of bay water.
Sediment-charged water is derived from agricultural fields along the Sandusky River upstream. Mud plumes in Lake Erie originate from prior pulses of muddy water from the bay. When this image was taken, some clear, lake water blue-green strip appeared to be flowing into the bay. Image of the Day Land. EO Explorer. Massive Muddy Tides in the Bay of Fundy. View more Images of the Day:. You might also be interested in view all. Subscribe to our newsletters.
This natural wonder can be seen from the shores of Eastport, Maine. The best time to see the "Old Sow" is 3 hours before high tide. Invoice Payments. Username Password Remember Me Log in. Make a Donation. They are: Vertical Tidal Effect This is the effect that gives the Bay of Fundy the highest tides in the world approx 50 feet designation. Tidal Bore Most of these are on the Nova Scotia side of the bay. How do the tides work?
Tides are the periodic rise and fall of the sea caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun on the Earth. The water in the Bay of Fundy has a natural resonance or rocking motion called seiche. You could compare this to the movement of water in a bathtub. Although the water in a bathtub sloshes from one end to the other and back again in a few seconds, it takes about 13 hours for the water in the bay to rock from the mouth of the bay to the head of the bay and back again.
As the ocean tide rises and floods into the bay every 12 hours and 25 minutes, it reinforces the rocking motion. To imagine this, picture an adult giving a gentle push to a child on a swing. Just a very small push is required to keep the swing moving. Likewise the seiche in the bay is sustained by the natural resonance of the ocean tides.
The bay becomes narrower and shallower [from m ft to 40 metres ft ] toward the upper bay, forcing the water higher up onto the shores. Plan your trip. Location and Contact. Cape House Restaurant. Gallery at the Cape. Downloads and Links. In our case the swing is the flow of water in and out of the bay, and the push is provided by ocean tides caused in turn by the gravitational influence of the Moon mainly another post will talk about tides in general. There are two high tides a day, one when the ocean side is nearest the Moon, and one on the side of the Earth most distant from the Moon.
This means that the tidal cycle is about 12 hr, but not exactly. That is because in a month the moon makes one orbit around the Earth, and therefore it takes a little more than 12 hr from one high tide to the next about 12 hr and 25 minutes to be exact.
The Bay of Fundy is just the right length, about km, for a resonance to exist, and we have a high tidal range response like if you push the swing at just the right time, the person on the swing goes high. If the Bay of Fundy was a bit shorter, or a bit longer, the response would be less. Many accounts on the web attribute the high tidal range to the shape of the bay. While it is true that the bay gets steadily narrower and shallower, and that helps push the water up, that is very much a secondary effect, with the size of the bay matching the resonant condition being more important.
So the shape of the bay helps determine where the tidal range is highest, the fact we have high tides in the Bay of Fundy is primarily due to the size, not shape. You or your children can experience this resonance for yourself in a model bay.
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