NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Probe Takes A Picture Of Earth And Moon From 70 Million Miles Away

a reply to: charlyv

The Oceans would be pretty dull without tides.

Still waters are always unnerving.

originally posted by: charlyv
a reply to: wildespace

The tides produce the beaches by grinding up and spreading particulate rocks, silica and coral

I thought it's the waves that do that. Tides is just very slow rise and fall of the water level. Tides can help transport stuff to certain areas, but it wouldn't be correct to say that without tides there would be no beaches.
en.wikipedia.org...

BTW, the Sun's tidal influence on Earth is 44% of that of the Moon. Not miniscule at all.

originally posted by: wildespace

originally posted by: charlyv
a reply to: wildespace

The tides produce the beaches by grinding up and spreading particulate rocks, silica and coral

I thought it's the waves that do that. Tides is just very slow rise and fall of the water level. Tides can help transport stuff to certain areas, but it wouldn't be correct to say that without tides there would be no beaches.
en.wikipedia.org...

BTW, the Sun's tidal influence on Earth is 44% of that of the Moon. Not miniscule at all.

Waves are caused by tidal forces as well as weather, and then you could say that weather itself is influenced greatly by tidal forces as well as solar heating. The Sun and the Moon together cause huge differences in the tides depending upon their position relative to Earth. If there was no Moon, I would agree that there would still be some tidal force, but it would be much calmer and lacking huge extremes. The extremes cause massive coastal erosion, which manufactures beaches.

We are fairly certain that Mars had oceans, but it is extremely hard to locate the boundaries. If Mars had a Moon like Earth, instead of the little pebble Phobos... I think it would be very easy to spot the beaches that would have been produced. Hey, it is my opinion, but I think it makes sense.

a reply to: charlyv
Tides play their role, but they're not the exclusive or even primary way for waves and erosion to occur. There's so much else happening there. Waves are primarily caused by the wind, while tsunami waves are caused by earthquakes and volcanoes. The Sun and weather systems play a big role, too.

ocean.si.edu...

On Mars, many ancient shorelines and river deltas are discernible. Mars actually experienced some mega-tsunamis that affected those shorelines.

physicsworld.com...