WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPRING TIDES, KING TIDES AND TSUNAMIS?
When sun and moon and earth are in a line, around full moon and new moon, the gravitation pull on the ocean is greatest. That means, around full and new moons, and in fact, just after the full and new moon because the ocean takes a bit to catch up, the tides are the most extreme. We call these fortnightly tides, “Spring” tides, and the more average fortnightly tides, during quarter moon phases, “Neap” tides. But better names would be “big moon tides” and “halfmoon tides”. (You can see the effect of the moon phases on The Ocean Calendar. You can also see how every second tide in a 24-hour period is lower). King tides are just extremely high Spring tides. The highest Spring tides occur twice a year, during the day in on of the summer months and during the night in winter months. Which month depends on when the moon is closest to the earth and the earth is closest (or furthest) from the Sun. In addition, large Spring tides can be caused by very low-pressure systems, big swells, waves and
