• Question: If there was no tides, how different would our lives be? How would it affect the environment?

    Asked by mushixxx to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 25 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Robert Woolfson

      Robert Woolfson answered on 25 Jun 2013:


      Very. If you ever look at a pond that’s been undisturbed for ages, you can see how disgusting the water gets. It’s full of mould and bacteria and nothing really lives there. Imagine every ocean on the planet like that.

      The tides are crucial for travelling fish and the spreading of nutrients around the ocean. Without them, a lot of animals in the ocean wouldn’t be able to move anywhere near as far. Also, the nutrients that are blown off land into the ocean would stay by the land, meaning far fewer things would live in the water.

    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 25 Jun 2013:


      In fact, there are no tides in the Mediterranean! The gap between Morocco and Spain is narrow, so the water can’t escape fast enough to make tides. Julius Caesar, originally from a Mediterranean country, was caught out by this when he invaded Britain and found his boats beached by the low tides.

    • Photo: Matthew Pankhurst

      Matthew Pankhurst answered on 26 Jun 2013:


      It would be bad news if you were an intertidal zone creature! All sorts of things live in this zone – between the high tide mark and the low tide mark. They are adapted to living part of their lives with the water over them, and part of their lives with air over them. The environment where the ocean meets the land is extremely important for all sorts of cycles, including nutrients. Without the continual refreshment of the incoming tide, these areas would be very different!

    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 28 Jun 2013:


      I thought there was a small tide in the Meditteranean, but less than a meter or something (so essentially it’s not even noticeable)?

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