3 ms·

You know tides are not caused by climate, right?

• JshWright 7y ago
  Tides are deviation from mean sea level caused by gravitational interactions with the Moon (primarily). "Climate" doesn't impact gravity. It absolutely does impact the baseline sea level (a higher sea level means higher tides).
  • advanceduser 7y ago
    Venice would be flooded every 24 hours if this were a result of baseline sea level increase.
    • JshWright 7y ago
      That's not even remotely how tides work... For starters, tides in the Mediterranean sea are semidiurnal, so it would be flooded every 12 hours, not every 24. In reality though, tides vary significantly, in a periodic fashion, based on various cyclic factors. The Moon is not a fixed distance from the Earth, and the gravity of the Sun (and how it aligns with the Moon's gravity) plays a role as well. The level of "high tide" changes over the course of decades as those cycles overlap and diverge (like constructive and destructive wave interference). I'm also not suggesting that climate change is the primary driver of the worsening flooding in Venice (geologic subsidence is major culprit there... the city is literally sinking). I was just pointing out that it's silly to claim that climate doesn't influence tides.