Seiche and its Effect on the Tides

So just what is a seiche? Sitting in a bathtub at home a child rocks to and fro. What happens? The water in the bathtub begins sloshing back and forth. The time it takes for the sloshing water to reach the front and back depends on the size of the tub. Doing the same thing in a swimming pool would cause a sloshing effect but with a lower frequency. The Bay of Fundy is a huge tub with sides, a front and a back. The back of the tub are the shallows formed by Georges and Browns Banks. The forces acting on the water in this tub cause it to slosh back and forth. The scientific name for this motion is " seiche" - a word derived from an old Swiss - French word meaning sloshing. Due to the size of the Bay of Fundy, the time it takes for the water to slosh from the back of the "tub" to the front is about the same as the time it takes for the tide to come in - 6 hours and 13 minutes. So just as the tide is coming in, the seich is rolling up the bay as well, amplifying the tide and splashing against the front of the "tub", creating the highest tides in the world. If the Bay were a bit smaller or larger, the seiche would not be in sync with the tides and FreshAir Adventure could not say " we kayak on the world's highest tides". And what are the forces creating the seiche? It is the rising tide of the Atlantic Ocean. Like a child on a swing that is given a gently push, the rising tide provides the water in the Bay a nudge, setting up the oscillation or resonance called a seiche.

The Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine - just long enough to set up a resonance in time with the tides