3D Gallery
Tides: The Moon Pulling at the Ocean
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Tides: The Moon Pulling at the Ocean is a 3D virtual gallery on MyGallery3D, a walkable online exhibition of 14 works. Step inside and explore it in your browser: no app, no headset.
Walk through this 3D virtual museum of tides in your browser, and watch the Moon move an ocean.
The Moon does not lift the sea so much as stretch the whole planet, and the water, being fluid, is free to follow. The friction of all that water dragging around the coasts is quietly braking the Earth. Over the last 620 million years the day has stretched from 21.9 hours to 24, and the Earth-Moon system has lost 17% of its rotational energy. Every tide you have watched was that transaction, in progress.
The open ocean rises and falls about one metre. The Bay of Fundy manages 16, because its funnel-shaped basin puts the water in resonance with the tide. In one half-day cycle about 100 billion tonnes moves in and out of the bay, twice the combined flow of all the world's rivers. In October 1869 a storm surge met a perigean spring tide and the water reached 21.6 metres.
In 725, in De temporum ratione, Bede set the rhythm down in writing. Tides rise and fall four fifths of an hour later each day, just as the Moon rises and sets four fifths of an hour later. In two lunar months, 59 days, the Moon circles the Earth 57 times and there are 114 tides. He also noted that the time of tides varies from place to place.
Where a big tide is funneled into a narrowing river, the flood can arrive all at once, as a wall of water travelling upstream against the current. The Qiantang River in China has the world's largest bore, up to 9 m high and moving at up to 40 km/h. Warning signs line the banks, and a number of fatalities happen there every year.
Golden light mirrors across the shore in this beach sunset. The glowing water suggests the moon's invisible pull, even as the sun dominates the visible sky.
Photograph by Ray Bilcliff, via Pexels.
White cliffs and a lighthouse stand revealed at low tide on a clear day. The exposed shore shows what the moon's pull briefly allows us to see.
Photograph by Jordan Coleman, via Pexels.
Seaweed-covered rocks emerge under dramatic sky when the tide retreats. The vibrant shore reveals itself only when the moon's pull relaxes its grip on the ocean.
Photograph by Ray Bilcliff, via Pexels.
Powerful waves collide with stone in a vivid display of oceanic force. The dramatic sky amplifies the raw energy of this seascape.
Photograph by Ray Bilcliff, via Pexels.
Stone walls meet still water at the tidal turn. Calm reflection and dramatic sky frame this moment of coastal stillness.
Photograph by Zoe Muirhead, via Pexels.
A beacon stands witness to the dramatic sky above. Sunset light transforms the coastal landscape into something serene and eternal.
Photograph by Ray Bilcliff, via Pexels.
Dramatic clouds mass above a beach where sunlight still glints on water. The ocean holds multiple moods at once.
Photograph by Stephan Leuzinger, via Pexels.
A long coastal bridge stretches beneath dramatic sky. The structure connects land across water, echoing how tides themselves create connections between ocean and shore.
Photograph by Boys in Bristol Photography, via Pexels.
A lighthouse marks the rocky shore in coastal sunset light. The beacon guides through tides, a human response to the ocean's rhythmic movements.
Photograph by Ray Bilcliff, via Pexels.
Light dances across wet sand beneath dramatic clouds. The interplay of sun and shadow captures a fleeting moment of coastal beauty.
Photograph by PHILIPPE SERRAND, via Pexels.
The sea reclaims the land under clear skies. A haunting vision of water where human infrastructure once stood.
Photograph by Jan van der Wolf, via Pexels.
Vibrant rock formations meet the ocean at sunset. Texture and light combine in a quiet study of the tidal edge.
Photograph by Ray Bilcliff, via Pexels.
Rocky shore worn smooth and strange by time and tide. These formations tell the patient story of water's constant reshaping of land.
Photograph by PHILIPPE SERRAND, via Pexels.
Seaweed clings to rocks as a coastal town glows at sunset. The tidal exposure reveals what the ocean conceals.
Photograph by Ray Bilcliff, via Pexels.
