Tides and the Ocean: Water's Movement Around the World, from Waves to Whirlpools

by William Thomson

Surfers, sailors, and anyone who loves the ocean will enjoy this visual exploration of the world's seas along its shores, including rip tides, swells, waves, and tsunamis.

Tide is the vertical motion of water, something so subtle it is impossible to see with the naked eye. Inspired by his travels around the world's coastline in a camper van with his young family, William Thomson captures the cycles of the sea's movement, and intersperses his adventures surfing the waves and charting the tides. Throughout Tides and the Ocean are his graphic renderings of unusual tidal maps, as well as other forms of water movement, including rip, rapids, swell, stream, tide, wave, whirlpool, and tsunami.

Tides and the Ocean explains how the tides surge when the moon and sun align with the earth; how ocean streams alternate direction every six hours (which is invaluable information for kayakers, paddle boarders, and fishermen); why skyscraper-sized tsunamis occur frequently in an Alaskan Bay; and the most deadly beach orientation for rip currents. Also emphasized throughout is the importance of keeping the world's oceans healthy and full of life.

Published in time for beach travel, this large-format hardcover is ideal for anyone who knows and loves the sea, and who wants to understand, discover, surf, or sail it better.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Science

224 pages, Hardcover

Published May 15, 2018

About the author

William Thomson is an artist, writer, and world traveler, who follows the coasts and maps the tides. Renowned for his hand-illustrated tidal charts, he’s the author of the UK bestseller The Book of Tides. He’s been written about in BBC, Telegraph, iNews, and LifeEdited. He lives with his partner, daughter, newborn son, and dog in a camper van wherever the water is best.

Reviews

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this book on display at the library and thought it looked interesting enough for a skim-read or a flip-through (it has illustrations, big ones, and they drew me in). But I read every word. Utterly fascinating. I had no idea. I really didn't know most of this. It helped that many of the amazing water phenomena happen here in Canada, a few of them not that far from me - the 2nd largest tidal river in the world, a standing wave (yeah! really!), the highest tides in the world, etc. I was enthralled.