tidal creek | Gloucester City, New Jersey

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• published: 13 Jul 2009
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This video depicts South Branch Newton Creek at low and high tide on 11 July 2009. Newton Creek is a tidal creek located in Camden County, New Jersey. Camden County is in southern New Jersey just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Delaware River has its source to the north in southern New York state. It flows and forms the boundary between the states New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In its lower reaches the Delaware River is not actually a river but an estuary. An estuary is a channel or body of water within which salt water and fresh water mix which is subject to the daily rise and fall of tides. Tidal influence in the lower Delaware River reaches as far upriver as Trenton, New Jersey's state capitol. The main channel of the lower Delaware River, however, isn't the only water feature subject to tidal influence: creeks and small rivers flowing into the Delaware River estuary are also subjected to twice daily tidal flows. Twice per day the tide makes its way up these tidal creek channels; and twice per day it flows out of these tidal creek channels back into the Delaware River estuary. Newton Creek is just one of numerous tidal creeks connected to the lower Delaware River estuary. During the last Ice Age (in North America it is called the Wisconsin Period) the level of the sea was as much as 400-500 feet lower than it is today. It was probably during that time that these tidal creek channels were incised deeply into the coastal areas bordering the present-day Delaware River estuary. When a warming climate ended the Wisconsin Ice Age about 10,000 years ago causing sea level to rise, the lower reaches of the creeks filled, and what had been freshwater streams druing the Wisconsin Age became creeks under the influence of the tide's daily ebb and flow. The particular location on view in this video is that part of South Branch Newton Creek located in Gloucester City, New Jersey. The first part of the video (0:00 to 0:44) was shot looking south from the small arch bridge (Camden County Bridge no. 28) located along busy Nicholson Road over the South Branch Newton Creek. The second part (0:45 to 3:22) was shot looking north over the South Branch Newton Creek from the same bridge. The third part (3:23 to 4:09) was shot at the end of Temple Avenue where the South Branch Newton Creek curves around to meet the Temple Avenue dead end. (Temple Avenue intersects Nicholson Road just a short walk east of Camden County Bridge 28.) All low tide scenes presented here were videod during the noon hour of 11 July 2009. All high tide scenes were videod during the six o'clock p.m. hour of 11 July 2009. The parts of this video where the low tide scene changes to the high tide scene occur at 0:37, 1:41, and 3:49. A montage of low and high tide scenes--all of which were shot from the vantage point of the north side of Bridge no. 28--is presented between 2:20 and 3:22. Background sounds heard on the video's audio portion include traffic along Nicholson Road, planes, and sounds from a busy nearby baseball field. Science has identified more than 400 factors which contribute to the phenomenon of oceanic and estuarine tides. The greatest tidal force is the gravitational pull of the moon. Essentially, tides are a great long-period wave which travels around Earth's oceans as the Earth rotates. This wave moves along coastlines as it revolves around amphidromic points (nodes of no wave motion) in oceans, bays, and gulfs. A tide coming in is said to be "rising" whereas a tide going out is said to be "falling." Additionally, high tide is also called "flood tide" whereas low tide is also called "ebb tide." Twice per month -- during the full and new moons, when the Earth, moon, and Sun are at syzygy (in line) -- the highest high tides and lowest low tides occur. Tides on these dates exhibiting the greatest tidal range are referred to as "spring tides." When the moon is in quadrature (right angle to the Earth and Sun), tides with the least range occur. These tides are called "neap tides." Predictable variation of tides occurs on a schedule of 18.6 years, the time it takes the moon to complete one cycle of its various motions. To find the time of high and low tide for any coastal location in the United States, go to this webpage from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/. Once on this page, click Tide Tables (listed along the left side of the page). On the next page select the year for which you would like to find the tide prediction, then select the U.S. state in which your coastal location of interest is found. On the next page click on the name of the coastal location/tidal station closest to the location for which you would like the tide table. Tides and tidal creeks--like everything in the natural world--are fascinating phenomena.