What term describes the phenomenon where the ocean surface creates a series of peaks and troughs due to gravitational interactions?

The phenomenon where the ocean surface creates a series of peaks and troughs due to gravitational interactions is known as tides. Tides result primarily from the gravitational pull exerted by the Moon and the Sun on Earth’s oceans. As the positions of these celestial bodies change relative to the Earth, they create bulges in the water, leading to the cyclical rise and fall of ocean levels, which we observe as high and low tides.

Tides are characterized by their regularity and predictability, happening approximately every 12 hours, due to the rotation of the Earth and the orbits of the Moon and the Sun. Additionally, various factors such as the geography of coastlines and the alignment of these bodies can influence their intensity and timing. Thus, tides are a direct result of gravitational forces acting on the ocean surface.

Other concepts, such as salinity, ebb currents, and amphidromic points, pertain to different aspects of oceanography and do not describe the wave-like motion generated by gravitational forces. Salinity refers to the concentration of salts in water, ebb current is the flow of water away from shore during low tide, and an amphidromic point is a location in the ocean where the tide exhibits no vertical change, further