CANADA: NB: Bay of Fundy
32 images Created 10 Dec 2014
Below are Tom Dempsey's images from an RV camping trip in October 2014 into eastern Canada to see sights along the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick: Hopewell Rocks sunrise, extreme tides, St Martins, and Fundy Trail Parkway. Bay of Fundy has the highest tidal range in the world, due to a resonance of being just the right length (270 km) matching the gravitational pushing cycle of the Moon that causes the tides. Coincidentally, the time it takes a large wave to go from the mouth of the bay to the inner shore and back is practically the same as the time from one high tide to the next. (You can see the effect of resonance for yourself by steadily pushing a long pan of water back and forth: an optimal pushing frequency for a given pan length will build up a high wave of water which sloshes out; but pushing too fast or too slow won't build up the big wave.) Two high tides occur per day, one when the ocean side is nearest the Moon, and one on the side of the Earth most distant from the Moon, about 12 hours and 25 minutes from one high tide to the next. The Bay of Fundy is on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. St. Martins (2006 population: 386) is 40 km east of Saint John. St. Martins (originally known as Quaco) was founded by Loyalists in 1783. Its important 1800s shipbuilding center faded, leaving tourism as today's major industry.