“The force of the earth’s rotation makes salt water accumulate on the Eastern Shore, so water tends to be saltier on the eastern side of the Bay at any latitude”
I was doing some personal research on the saltiness of the Chesapeake. I have boated the Northeast all my life (42 y/o), but never the Chesapeake… but new romance promises me some time on the upper Chesapeake. I got me a very nice performance boat and was wondering if I could finally enjoy some salt-free boating (much less wear and maintenance) in the Upper Chesapeake and in/near the Sassafras River on the eastern side.
Assuming the earth’s rotation can affect the distribution of salt, how could the rotation cause the saltier water to sit on the eastern side of the Chesapeake?
The Upper Chesapeake is probably fresh water all the way, but I am still left wondering about the quote/link above.
Tidal motions, indeed caused by the earth rotation under the moon, could cause waters in large bodies - like the chesapeake, to flow but I’d think it would be westward.
Exactly. I understand how the earth’s rotation affect low pressure systems and some other things, but in this case, I cannot see how it causes salt to be heavier on the eastern side.
It’s not related to low pressure per se, but to any fluid moving toward or away from the equator.
In a low-pressure weather system, air is moving toward its center. In the northern hemisphere, this means that as southern air heads north toward a low, it deviates to the east, and as northern air heads south toward the low, it deviates toward the west. This is why a low in the northern hemisphere (including tornadoes and hurricanes) is seen to spin in a counterclockwise fashion.
The reverse spin is seen for a high pressure system, in which air is moving away from its center; air headed south deviates to the west, and air headed north deviates to the east. Presto, clockwise rotation.
Now think of Chesapeake Bay, in which the river (fresh water) is flowing southward. This water will, because of that same Coriolis Effect, tend to want to hug the western shoreline. Any salt water present in the bay will have come from the ocean and flowed north with the tides, and so it will tend to hug the eastern edge of the bay.
Damn, I think that makes sense. Since the Chessie is an estuary of the Atlantic, the salt water coming up the Chessie from the Atlantic has the easiest passage on the Eastern side and a prevailing current (more or less Northeryly on the eastern side) because of the Coriolis effect. I can picture that.
