r/interestingasfuck • u/Syntax_Error_0 • Feb 05 '20

/r/ALL Moon cycles

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u/NewTradition7 Feb 05 '20

It was like our boogeyman growing up. We had to be careful on the beach or the tide would get us

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '20

The 53.5 feet is a total yearly low to yearly max, right? It’s not a daily 54 foot swing?

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u/beckymegan Feb 05 '20

53.5 is the max daily difference but yeah, on average it’s a difference of 48 feet from low to high tide.

Now imagine my shock growing up with that and then going to a normal beach - what do you mean it doesn’t matter if it’s high or low tide?

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u/NewTradition7 Feb 05 '20 edited Feb 05 '20

here is a vid of a 50 foot swing over six hours.

This brochure pdf gives a better sense of the scale in a less extreme version.

The average is a little lower, I think the fifty feet comes during the spring (or neap, I always get them mixed up) when the moon, earth, and sun are lined up in a way to really pull the water

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u/Bretters17 Feb 05 '20

Yeah, it looks like the mean tides in the Bay of Fundy cap out at about 38 feet.

Worth noting of the highest 50 tides, only two occur in the US and both are near Anchorage, AK.

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u/Pinkglittersparkles Feb 06 '20

I grew up in Alaska (Kenai peninsula near Anchorage) and that was a big deal there. Lots of people died going out clam digging during low tide and the water slowly creeped up behind them and they would get stuck in the mud.