SLO3

For SLO 3 I’m going to discussing different topics involving waves and tides. Mostly focused around unique phenomenons in the ocean.

First, I will go over how the moon affects the ocean and its tides. Most of what you need to know, that It’s mostly known that water would be drawn towards the moon because of its gravitational pull,causing a tidal bulge in the direction. But also a tidal bulge forms on the opposite side of the planet. The moons gravity isn’t just pulling on the water on the earth, but it’s also pulling on our whole planet itself. Another factor affecting tide is land if the earth had no solid than the tidal bulges would stay in line with the Moon by the planet. The sun also has a very big factor in tides on the earth. When the sun and the moon are aligned twice a month for a full moon, we experience extreme lows and highs called Spring tides because of the powers combined. When the moon and the sun are at the right angle their gravity smooths out the bulges, and the less extreme differences are called neap tides.

One thing most people don’t know about is how full moons and the ocean have also a great effect in biology. One thing I found out is that corals reproduce a few days after a full moon once a year. Corals know when the moon is full thanks to photoreceptors that can sense changes in the blue wavelengths of Moonlight. In that once a year, the corals release their eggs and sperm into the water all at once. Synchronizing like this gives them the great chances of fertilization. When the timing is right, when the tides, salinity, water temperature and daytime length hit the perfect level.

July 9th 1958, an earthquake active for one minute on Fairweather Fault in the Alaska Panhandle was these strongest in Alaska for about 60 years sent around 82 million tons of rock down the waters of Lituya Bay. It was as strong as an asteroid impact. As a devastating result, the tallest mega tsunami measuring as tall as 1720 feet. Scientists were left puzzled for years by the sheer size of that wave. They could t identify a mechanism that could have created such a massive reaction. It was later discovered that a piece of rock measuring of 2400‘ x 3000‘, and 300 feet thick, had dislodge from the face of the northern wall of the inlet, and had fallen 2000 feet into the bay. All that caused a reaction similar to if the astroid had fallen into the ocean.