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George Huxtable wrote, after much snipping:

> Because of the inertia of the immense water-masses involved, together with
> the obstruction caused by the continents (which restrict free flow from one
> ocean basin to another) the ocean surface can't, anywhere near, respond to
> these forces in the necessary time. Instead, the water swirls and surges
> around the ocean basins, in a pattern that's so complex that it defies
> calculation.


While computationally daunting, in the last ten years, cotidal charts
for the world ocean have been calculated from the astronomic tide
generating forces and the shapes of the ocean basins -- charts that seem
to match quite well with empirical observations.

Back when I was an oceanography student (nearly 30 years now) it was
quite impossible. The first realistic tidal model I encountered (for
part of the Tasman Sea) dated from the mid-1980s. By the mid- to
late-1990s, it was possible to do the whole ocean.


Trevor Kenchington


--
Trevor J. Kenchington PhD                         Gadus@iStar.ca
Gadus Associates,                                 Office(902) 889-9250
R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour,                     Fax   (902) 889-9251
Nova Scotia  B0J 2L0, CANADA                      Home  (902) 889-3555

                     Science Serving the Fisheries
                      http://home.istar.ca/~gadus

   

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