SP-345 Evolution of the Solar
System
FIGURE 9.4.1b.- Tidal amplitude on the
Atlantic coasts as an example of the actual amplitude distribution in
comparison with the simple Laplacian tide concept. The curves show
the average range at spring tide of the semidiurnal tide as a
function of latitude. The solid curve represents the tide on the
western side of the Atlantic Ocean; the dashed curve, the eastern
side of the Atlantic Ocean and the dot-and-dashed curve, the
Laplacian tide. In the comparison with the (much less known) open
ocean amplitudes, the coastal amplitudes are increased by
cooscillation with the oceanic regions over the continental shelves.
The distribution illustrates further the facts that tidal dissipation
is governed by a series of complex local phenomena depending on the
configuration of continents, shelves, and ocean basins, and that the
theoretical Laplacian tide obviously cannot serve even as a
first-order approximation. (From Defant, 1961.)
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