The Petitcodiac Tidal Bore Earthcache EarthCache
The Petitcodiac Tidal Bore Earthcache
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The coords will take you to Bore Park in Moncton, New Brunswick,
which holds much of the information about the bore, however is
kinda a bad place to view the bore... From there, head East a bit
towards Chateau Moncton to get a good view.
Most people know that ocean tides are controled by the phases of
the moon, and many of us have seen the effect low or high tide has
on the coast line. A tidal bore is a natural phenomenon associated
with extremely high tides. It's essentially a wall of water heading
up stream (typically against the natural current) from the ocean's
tide effect.
There are a handfull of locations around the world where a tidal
bore can be observed, but the Petitcodiac one used to be the most
spectacular of them all. At one point several feet high in fact.
Now reduced down to a few centimeters due to man's folly of
construction, and slowly dissappearing because of the controversy
of that construction, this is a must see event.
It still occurs twice every 24 hours, and as such should be easy to
see almost any time of year. The coords will place you in Bore
Park. A small park created in the downtown area to watch the tidal
bore. In fact there is a "bore clock" which informs people when the
next tidal bore will head by.
The bore itself is controled by the tides of the Bay of Fundy (the
world's highest tides in fact) which sees an average tidal rise and
fall of about 37 feet. (Actually a rise of 56 feet over the
low-tide mark has been recorded there as well) The Bay of Fundy
tides essentially push a wall of water back up the Petitcodiac
drainage basin right to Moncton. The bore is the "front edge" of
the Fundy's massive tide change.
The tidal bore here has been described in Ripley’s Believe It Or
Not and has been called "one of world’s great natural wonders." In
the park there are informaiton plaques and signs to help people
understand the bore.
In 1968 the brilliant penny pinchers decided to create a 1km long
causeway across the Petticodiac River linking Moncton and the "town
across the way" Riverview. This however has caused a huge buildup
of silt and clay which have blocked the tides, caused the river to
get narrower and have diminished the effect of the bore.
To Claim this EarthCache Virtual, you need to be on hand to
witness a tidal bore in one of it's cycles within the 24 hour
period of a day. Take a digital picture and post it showing
yourself (or your GPSr out in front of you) with the bore in
view. Timetables for the bore can be found online at most
Moncton Tourist information pages, or on paper at all tourist New
Brunswick spots. Also as stated, the coords bring you to BoreView
park this USED to be the place to view the bore, but now it'll make
it much harder to see it, however it does contain interesting
information about the Bore itself. Head down towards Chateau
Moncton (East along the trail there) to get a prime view of the
Bore.
This Cache was hidden by a member of the MGA!
-=Maritime Geocachers Association=-
Additional Hints
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