Highest tides
Last updated: August 20, 2018 at 3:40 am
Burntcoat Head, Bay of Fundy (Canada) — The tidal range of Minas Basin in Nova Scotia is 17 m (55.8 ft). A record spring tide of 21.6 m (71 ft) was reportedly observed on Oct. 4-5, 1869, during a tropical cyclone named the Saxby Gale. Each tide cycle (12.4 hours) of 115 billion tonnes of seawater in the Bay of Fundy is more than the combined flow of all of the world’s freshwater rivers. In Mi’kmaq First Nation folklore, the huge tides are caused by a giant whale.
Leaf Basin, in Nunavik’s Ungava Bay (Canada), has a 16.8 m (55.1 ft) tidal range.
Yeo, R.K, Risk, M.J., 1981, The sedimentology, stratigraphy, and preservation of intertidal deposits in the Minas Basin System, Bay of Fundy: Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, v. 51, pp. 245–260.
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Jeffrey Gallant is the Editor-in-Chief and Records Keeper of the Diving Almanac. He is also a contributing editor of DIVER Magazine, and the scientific director of the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG). Jeffrey started diving in 1982.
