geologia: Tidal acceleration

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Tidal acceleration is an effect of the tidal forces between an orbiting natural satellite (e.g. the Moon) and the primary planet that it orbits (e.g. Earth). The acceleration causes a gradual recession of a satellite in a prograde orbit (satellite moving to a higher orbit, away from the primary body, with a lower orbital speed and hence a longer orbital period), and a corresponding slowdown of the primary's rotation, known as tidal braking. See supersynchronous orbit. The process eventually leads to tidal locking, usually of the smaller body first, and later the larger body (e.g. theoretically with Earth-Moon system in 50 billion years). The Earth–Moon system is the best-studied case. The s…

Evidence: 66 • authority: 72

Tidal locking between a pair of co-orbiting astronomical bodies occurs when one of the bodies reaches a state where there is no longer any net change in its rotation rate over the course of a complete orbit. In the case where a tidally locked object possesses synchronous rotation, the object takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner. For example, the same side of the Moon always faces Earth, although there is some variability because the Moon's orbit is not perfectly circular. Usually, only the satellite is tidally locked to the larger body. However, if both the difference in mass between the two bodies and the distance between them are relati…

Evidence: 58 • authority: 72

In coastal and environmental engineering, the closure of tidal inlets entails the deliberate prevention of the entry of seawater through inlets into inland areas, through the use of fill material and the construction of barriers. The aim of such closures is usually to safeguard inland regions from flooding, thereby protecting ecological integrity and reducing potential harm to human settlements and agricultural areas. The complexity of inlet closure varies significantly with the size of the estuary involved. For smaller estuaries, which may naturally dry out at low tide, the process can be relatively straightforward. However, the management of larger estuaries demands a sophisticated blend…

Evidence: 42 • authority: 72

Tidal heating (also known as tidal dissipation or tidal damping) occurs through the tidal friction processes: orbital and rotational energy is dissipated as heat in either (or both) the surface ocean or interior of a planet or satellite. When an object is in an elliptical orbit, the tidal forces acting on it are stronger near periapsis than near apoapsis. Thus the deformation of the body due to tidal forces (i.e. the tidal bulge) varies over the course of its orbit, generating internal friction which heats its interior. This energy gained by the object comes from its orbital energy and/or rotational energy, so over time in a two-body system, the initial elliptical orbit decays into a circul…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth. It orbits Earth in an elliptical path, at a distance that varies over the year, averaging around 378,000 kilometers (235,000 mi). It completes an orbit (lunar month) in relation to Earth and the Sun (synodically) every 29.5 days. The Moon and Earth are bound by gravitational attraction, which is stronger on the sides facing each other. The resulting tidal forces are the main driver of Earth's tides, and have pulled the Moon to always face Earth with the same near side. This tidal locking effectively synchronizes the Moon's rotation period (lunar day) to its orbital period (lunar month). In geophysical terms, the Moon is a planetary-mass objec…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Charon ( KAIR-on, -⁠ən or SHARR-ən), formal designation (134340) Pluto I, is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a mean radius of 606 km (377 mi). Charon is a planetary-mass moon and the sixth-largest known trans-Neptunian object after Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Gonggong. It was discovered in 1978 at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., using photographic plates taken at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS). With half the diameter and one-eighth the mass of Pluto, Charon is a very large moon in comparison to its parent body. Its gravitational influence is such that the barycenter of the Pluton…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Europa ( ) or Jupiter II is the smallest and least massive of Jupiter's four Galilean moons. It is observable from Earth with common binoculars and is a planetary-mass moon, slightly smaller and less massive than Earth's Moon. Europa is an icy moon, and, of the three icy Galilean moons, the closest orbiting Jupiter. As a result, it exhibits a relatively young surface shaped by tidal heating. Europa consists mainly of silicate rock, and potentially has an iron-nickel core. It has a very thin atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Europa has a pale, geologically young surface striated by light tan cracks and streaks; the surface lacks large-scale features such as mountains or craters, makin…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Tidal circularization or orbital circularization is an effect of the tidal forces between a body in orbit around a central celestial object, whereby the eccentricity of the orbit is reduced over time so that it becomes less and less elliptical.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The tidal force or tide-generating force is the difference in gravitational attraction between different points in a gravitational field. It causes different parts of bodies to be pulled unevenly, so that those bodies are being stretched towards the attraction. Tidal force is the differential effect of gravity across an extended body. Rather than the total gravitational force, it is the spatial variation in that force. Equivalently, it is the gradient of the gravitational field or the derivative of the gravitational potential. Tidal forces are therefore a residual effect of gravity, arising because the near side of a body experiences a stronger attraction than the more distant far side. Thi…

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Tidal locking causes iron rain to be common weather on exoplanet WASP-76b

Evidence: — • authority: 92

Coastal flooding at predictable hours.. Flooding is typically perceived as a sudden and unpredictable hazard. Here, we show that recurrent flooding can occur at highly predictable times in tidally dominated coastal systems. This predictability stems from phase-locking of tidal constituents and constituent pairs with the solar day, causing peak tides to recur at consistent local times set by regional tidal propagation. Using tide-gauge records from the United States and the United Kingdom, we quantify the intraday timing of coastal flood events and show strong clustering at specific hours, particularly where semidiurnal or mixed tides dominate. For example, floods in Boston cluster around no…