What Are Tidal Waves?

Tidal wave, also known as freak wave, refers to the periodic fluctuation of the earth's surface caused by the tidal phenomenon caused by the tidal force of the sun, the moon and other celestial bodies.

A tidal wave with a height of half an inch was detected on the ocean near the Pacific coast of the Americas. This is the first time such a wave has been detected on the high seas. One might think that the tidal wave mentioned here is not the same as the tsunami that destroyed homes and factories on the coast. But in fact, the huge tidal waves in the Pacific Ocean are just a little higher than this, maybe just a few inches high. These uncommon waves are long and extremely fast, and when they overlap along the coast, trouble comes. On the ocean surface of the continental shelf, the accumulated tidal waves suddenly become taller than the house and form a rushing wave. Everything is swept away, causing very serious damage. For this reason, it makes sense to take some measures to detect them on the high seas ^[1]

The Earth's

Crustal deformation is the deformation that occurs due to tectonic stress and tidal forces of extraterrestrial objects and other loads. With different frequencies of the force, the crust will produce vibrations with different periods. Solid tides and earthquakes are two extreme cases of ground vibration cycles, and their vibration waveforms are called solid tidal waves and seismic waves, respectively. Solid tidal waves include gravity, tilt, and strain solid tidal waves, and are collectively referred to as tidal waves below. "Waves are also called waves. The process of vibration propagation is a form of energy transmission." Vibration is "the process in which an object changes back and forth through an equilibrium position." Since tidal waves and seismic waves are both called waves, they have some common characteristics of the process of vibration propagation, but there are also many differences because the force sources that generate these two waves are different. ^[2]

The source of the tidal wave is the tidal force of the celestial body. The tidal force is essentially gravitation. According to Newton's classic theory, universal gravitation is a kind of super-distance force, which is a kind of instantaneous force, but there is actually no such force. According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, the masses that make accelerations will radiate gravitational waves outwards, and the celestial bodies will also radiate gravitational waves when they make orbital motions. The assumption that gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light is at the core of Einstein's general theory of relativity that constructs the concept of time and space. This theory has never been tested since its introduction in 1915, and today it has been confirmed by American scientists. Therefore, the time when gravitational waves from celestial bodies in the same epoch act on different parts of the earth is different, but considering the space scale of the earth, the time difference of the effect of gravitational waves on various points on the earth can be ignored. Of course, this is just a family statement, because some scientists claim that the speed of light is not constant, which challenges Einstein's theory of relativity. Therefore, the nature of gravity or gravity is inconclusive. However, at any moment, the elastic earth becomes an ellipsoid slightly elongated in the direction of the celestial body under the action of the tidal force. The general feature of this gravitational field of the moon, which cannot be "eliminated" by free fall, is the tidal effect. The magnitude of its tidal deformation is an anti-cubic law with the distance from the lunar attraction center, instead of an anti-square law relationship like gravity ^2]

After typhoon "Davi" made landfall in northern Vietnam in September 2003, it continued from north to south and reached Nan Dinh province in northeastern Vietnam, causing a tidal wave of up to 2.6 meters. This is the highest record of tidal waves in the past 40 years. In addition, the typhoon also damaged many coastal dikes, thousands of trees and telephone poles were blown down, and telephone communications were interrupted. Studies have shown that tidal waves, also called freak waves, can roll up to 30 meters (100 feet) high enough to sink large ships in an instant. Tidal waves are very rare, but in some currents, they occur occasionally. Now, tidal waves are assumed to be the cause of the disappearance of many ships in recent years ^[3] .