392 



Tides in the Mediterranean and Adjacent Seas 



obtains a range of about 1\ cm for the western end near Gibraltar, where 

 it nearly conies to a periodical parallel displacement of the entire surface 

 without a nodal line. 



All these separate parts of the tides can simply be added together to obtain 

 the theoretical tide of the western Mediterranean basins, since all are almost 

 synchronous: namely, the independent and the co-oscillating tide with the 

 Atlantic Ocean in the west with the phase 3h; the independent and co- 

 oscillating tide with the eastern basin with the phase of 9 h. Figure 164 

 shows the good agreement between the theory and the observations, both 

 for the western and the eastern basin. This is remarkable, when one bears 

 in mind that the theory is solely based on the fact that the tides at the western 



end of the basin corresponds to the tides of the Strait of Gibraltar. The 

 well-developed nodal lines are transformed by the rotation of the earth into 

 amphidromies which should influence the establishments in their vicinity. 

 There are indeed indications to that effect, but sufficiently accurate obser- 

 vations are lacking. 



Some years ago, a harmonic analysis of the tidal observations has been 

 made for a large number of Mediterranean localities. Table 47 gives a com- 

 pilation of the constants for the most important tidal components. Sterneck 

 has used them to test his theory. The phase of each component after being 



