The extreme low tides in Puerto Plata and Samaná beaches are attributed to a neap tide, according to the Civil Defense director for Puerto Plata, Wuascar García. He said this is an annual spring time phenomenon. The tides can be repeated in the morning and the evening. The tides were evident in beaches such as Sosua and Cabarete in Puerto Plata and Las Terrenas in Samaná.
As explained, neap tides happen when the sun and moon are at right angles to each other. They occur when the gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun are perpendicular to one another with respect to the Earth and the ocean is “pulled” back and forth by the gravitational forces during their monthly and yearly orbits. Neap tides occur during quarter moons.
There was concern in Puerto Plata and Samana that this could be a warning of a tsunami.
Read more:
7 Dias
NOAA
Astronomy Know How
El Nuevo Diario
3 May 2017
