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[hvered]

The author of 'The Sea Inside' which I'm reading at present lives and works in Southampton and he writes that the port's unique selling point is its Double High Water, something to do with the 'Atlantic Pulse' which he doesn't profess to understand.

This site http://www.bristolnomads.org.uk/stuff/double_tides.htm claims that Southampton's peculiar tides have nothing whatsoever to do with the Isle of Wight nor the Solent but these features do apparently have some beneficial effects:

The unusual phenomenon of the 'Double High Water' in the Solent and Southampton area is well known, but it is not caused by the existence of the two entrances to the Solent or the Isle of Wight as is popularly supposed. However, the two entrances to the Solent do cause other effects to the tide which are not so well known, namely, the 'Young Flood Stand' and the short duration of the ebb tide which are both valuable assets to the mariner.

Southampton and the Isle of Wight are the half-way point of the English Channel and it appears that the relationship between the Isle of Wight and the Cherbourg peninsula has given rise to four oscillations, a feature that is described as 'uncommon'.

Further on it transpires that there's no complete explanation for Southampton's tides.

This explanation and theory has come to light through continuous tidal observations since the early 1900s and although past hydrographers and research scientists have tried to discover a firm reason for this 'Double High Water' effect the remarkable tidal features shown in this tidal curve are undoubtedly due to modifications which brought about the existence of the two entrances to the Solent.

[hvered]

According to the author of The Sea Inside, Farne means traveller, pilgrim. St Cuthbert dug out a cell in the rock, he says, in which the saint could only look up at the sky. It sounds like an observatory in reverse as it were, but whether the area of sky is viewed from a tower or a hole in the ground, would not the end result be the same? Oh, and Cuthbert kept a pair of ravens.

[Boreades]

St Cuthbert certainly seems to be in the Celtic Saint tradition.

I like his Wiki page, especially:
The tension between the Roman and Irish traditions, often exacerbated by Cuthbert's near-contemporary Saint Wilfrid, an intransigent and quarrelsome supporter of Roman ways, was to be a major feature of Cuthbert's lifetime. Cuthbert himself, though educated in the Celtic tradition, followed his mentor Eata in accepting the Roman forms without apparent difficulty after the Synod of Whitby in 664.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuthbert

The more I read of that Synod of Whitby. the more it seems to be a pivotal moment in British history.

the synod decided to accept the arguments of Wilfrid and the king for the universal Church traditions using the Roman Rite, to which Eata, unlike Colmán of Lindisfarne, acquiesced.

While the woeful Wilfrid could be regarded as a disappointment, it looks significant (to me) that "the old abbot, Colman, left Lindisfarne to go back to Iona with 30 English monks." - so did Iona continue the Celtic traditions away from Wilfrid?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colm%C3%A1n_of_Lindisfarne

[TisILeclerc]

Hvered: 'Southampton and the Isle of Wight are the half-way point of the English Channel and it appears that the relationship between the Isle of Wight and the Cherbourg peninsula has given rise to four oscillations, a feature that is described as 'uncommon'. '

Wiki has an article about resonance in ocean waves and an article about 'Seiches' which are observed in lakes etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiche

'A seiche (/ˈseɪʃ/ SAYSH) is a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water. Seiches and seiche-related phenomena have been observed on lakes, reservoirs, swimming pools, bays, harbours and seas. The key requirement for formation of a seiche is that the body of water be at least partially bounded, allowing the formation of the standing wave.'

As for tidal resonance

'With a narrower shelf, there is still a resonance but it has less effect at tidal frequencies. However the effect is still enough to partly explain why tides along a coast lying behind a continental shelf are often higher than at offshore islands in the deep ocean. Resonances also generate strong tidal currents and it is the turbulence caused by the currents which is responsible for the large amount of tidal energy dissipated in such regions.'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_resonance

It gets very complicated and perhaps Boreades could explain it all in plain English.



It reminds me of an article on string resonance in stringed instruments in a recent article on Classic FM

http://www.classicfm.com/discover/music ... mp=EMC-NEO

[Boreades]

Can I explain it all in plain English? I'm not sure, but I can chuck in a few idle thoughts.

Just along the coast at Portland Bill the tide is famously strong, and a humongous amount of water is sloshing backwards and forwards up & down the English Channel at every turn of the tide.

Now for a moment consider the Bristol Channel, with its famous tidal bore, which people can surf on all the way to Gloucester.

The Solent isn't usually though of in the same way, but it has the same properties of incoming tides being funneled into a shallow, narrowing space. The tidal surge isn't enough to generate a proper "bore", but there is still a surge, and it gets split by the Isle of Wight. The part that goes up the Solent (nearest the mainland) has a much shorter distance to travel before reaching Southampton, while the part of the surge that goes south of IoW is travelling the long way round and taking longer. The first surge has had enough time to reach its peak and start falling back again before the long-way-round part starts coming up the Solent from the opposite direction.

Clear as Solent mud?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_bore#United_Kingdom

[Boreades]

Another way to picture it is to imagine you've spilt a mug of tea into the tray you've got the mug on. The moon's gravity acts a bit like tipping the tray, and the tea sloshes across the tray. When it bounces off the side of the tray and back on itself, you get extra high splashes.

[TisILeclerc]

That's the excuse I always use when, er if, I knock a pint over. It wasn't me it was the gravitational pull of the moon which is extra strong tonight.

[Boreades]

:-)
What excuse do you use when it's a total solar eclipse?

[TisILeclerc]

'What excuse do you use when it's a total solar eclipse?'

Er, wha' 'appened. Where am I? I'm not drunk you know. 'As anybody seen my ship?

[Boreades]

I've just noticed t'interweb is all aquiver over the notion that there will be a extra-big full moon at the same time as the eclipse - and the end of the world as well know it (Jim)

Solar eclipse will be the beginning of the end of the world, say Christian pastors

Many on the internet are worried that Friday’s solar eclipse is a sign of the end times, or a message of judgement from God. And while the theories are largely speculative, they are encouraged by a genuine collision of three rare and significant celestial events on Friday.

As well as the eclipse itself, a Supermoon and the Spring equinox are also set to happen — all three of which have in the past been celebrated as events of significance within various cultures around the world.

A Supermoon, or perigee moon, happens when the full or new moon does its closest fly-by of the Earth, making it look bigger than it normally does

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 14298.html