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When
a river mouth has a flat, converging shape and when the tidal range
exceeds 6
to 9 m, the river may experience a tidal bore (Fig. 1). A tidal bore is
basically a series of waves propagating upstream as the tidal flow
turns to
rising. It is a positive surge. As the surge progresses inland, the
river flow
is reversed behind it (e.g. LYNCH 1982, CHANSON 2001). The best
historically
documented tidal bores are probably those of the Seine river (France)
and
Qiantang river (China). The mascaret
of the Seine river was documented first during the 7th and 9th
centuries AD,
and in writings from the 11th to 16th centuries (MALANDAIN 1988). It
was
locally known as "la Barre". The Qiantang river bore, also called
Hangzhou bore, was early mentioned during the 7th and 2nd centuries BC,
and it
was described in 8th century writings. The bore was then known as "The
Old
Faithful" because it kept time better than clocks. A tidal bore on the
Indus river might have wiped out the fleet of Alexander the Great
(MALANDAIN
1988, JONES 2003). Another famous tidal bore is the "pororoca" of the
Amazon river observed by PINZON and LA CONDAMINE in the 16th and 18th
centuries
respectively. The Hoogly (or Hooghly) bore on the Gange was documented
in 19th
century shipping reports. Smaller tidal bores occur on the Severn river
near
Gloucester, England, on the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, France, at
Turnagain
Arm and Knik Arm, Cook Inlet (Alaska), in the Bay of Fundy (at
Petitcodiac and
Truro), on the Styx and Daly rivers (Australia), and at Batang Lupar
(Malaysia).
A surge (2)
in an open channel is a sudden change of
flow depth (i.e. abrupt increase or decrease in depth). An abrupt
increase in flow depth is called a positive surge while a sudden
decrease in depth is termed a negative surge. This picture shows an undular surge (propagation from left
to right). A positive surge looks like a moving hydraulic jump.
The application of the momentum principle to the unsteady flow
is based upon a quasi-steady flow situation analogy (CHANSON 1999, pp. 67-71, CHANSON
2012). A bore is a
positive surge of tidal origin. Tidal
bores occur as the tidal flow turns to rising (e.g. LYNCH 1982) (Links : (1) ). The front of
a positive surge absorbs random
disturbances on both sides of the surge and this makes the positive
surge stable and self-perpetuating. With appropriate boundary
conditions,
a tidal bore may travel long distances upsteam of the river mouth. For
example, the tidal bore on the Pungue river (Mozambique) is still about
0.7 m high about 50 km upstream of the mouth and it may reach 80 km
inland.
Impact on mixing and dispersion
Footnotes(1) The word mascaret is the French translation of tidal bore. The front of the tidal bore was locally called 'la barre'. It is thought that the word 'mascaret' comme from Southern France (langue d'oc). Translations of the word tidal bore include : Tidal bore (English) = Mascaret (French) = Pororoca (Portuguese, Brazil) = Aegir (or eagre) (Celtic).
(2) A surge is a sudden change of flow depth in an open channel (i.e. abrupt increase or decrease in depth). An abrupt increase in flow depth is called a positive surge while a sudden decrease in depth is termed a negative surge. A positive surge looks like a moving hydraulic jump. Its flow properties may be solved by applying the momentum principle to the unsteady flow based upon a quasi-steady flow situation analogy (CHANSON 1999, pp. 67-71).The Seine river tidal bore
Photo No. 1 : at
Caudebec-en Caux around 1960, view from the bac (ferry) looking at the
right bank (Photograph by Raymond HUON, Courtesy of Sequana-Normandie).
Photo No. 2 : Bac de Caudebec-en
Caux facing the mascaret in 1958, view from the right bank (boats and
ships had to leave the wharf to face the mascaret in a similar
way) (Copyright: Alain HUON, Courtesy of Sequana-Normandie).
Photo No. 3 : the passage of the mascaret
in the 1930s, photograph taken at the ramp of the ferry at Yainville
(France), right bank, near the old power station (Courtesy of G.
FROMAGER).
Photo No. 4 : after
the passage of the masaret looking upsteam, view from right bank
between Yainville and Jumieges, looking toward Heurteauville;
Note the quite river upstream of the bore (on the left top) (Courtesy
of Sequana-Normandie).
Photo No. 5
: the mascaret at Aizier, near Quilleboeuf (view from left bank)
(Courtesy of J.J. MALANDAIN).
Photo
No. 6 : mascaret at Quilleboeuf (Photo I. Hernault, Le Havre)
(Courtesy of J.J. MALANDAIN).
Photo
No. 7 : the mascaret at Villequier, ancient gravure (Courtesy of
J.J. MALANDAIN).
Photo No. 8 :
mascaret on the Risle, a tributary of the Seine river at Pont-Audemer
(Collection A. Renard, editeur, Pont-Audemer) (Courtesy of J.J.
MALANDAIN).
Other tidal bores
Mascaret on the Dordogne river, at Vayres (au Port de Saint Pardon, France) : looking in the bore direction, looking upstream (Courtesy of Fabrice COLAS). The tidal bore (mascaret) on the 27 Sept. 2000: Photo No. 1 : arriving bore; Photo No. 2 : kayacks and surfers; Photo No. 3 : close to St Pardon; Photo No. 4 : in front of St Pardon. Tidal bore on the Dordogne river on 21 Feb. 2004 : Photo No. 1 : arriving bore (surge Froude number about 1.05 to 1.1) at St Pardon; Photo No. 2 : bore moving upstream towards Vayres. Photo No. 3 : fisherman catching lamproie fish with net few minutes prior the bore arrival between Vayres and St Pardon. Tidal bore of the Dordogne river on 4 July 2008 : Photo No. 1 : view from Saint Pardon : very weak undular surge. Photo No. 2 : looking upstream towards Vayres. Menhir de Pierrefitte : neolithic mounument located at Chateau Saint Martial, on the right bank next to the old Pierrefitte harbour which serviced Saint Emilion up the 16th century. Tidal bore on 20 July 2008 at sunrise : Photo No. 1 : Dordogne river in front of Port de Saint Pardon before the tidal bore arrival. Photo No. 2 : ripple in the channel centreline marking the tidal bore front, view from the left bank. Photo No. 3 : wave breaking next to the left bank. Photo No. 4 : whelps 60 seconds after the tidal bore front passage. Tidal bore on 21 July 2008 at sunrise : Photo No. 1 : tidal bore front approching the jetty of Saint Pardon at 07:03. Photo No. 2 : wave breaking at the jetty during the wave front passage. Photo No. 3 : wave breaking on the jetty about 58 s after the tidal bore front passage. Tidal bore on 2 September 2008 evening : Photo No. 1: View from Port de Saint Pardon, looking downstream. Photo No. 2 : surfers in front of Port de Saint Pardon. Photo No. 3 : surfers on the second wave crest passing in front of Port de Saint Pardon.| {http://www.sequana-normandie.com/} | Sequana-Normandie |
| {http://www.ac-rouen.fr/ecoles/saint-ouen/labarre.htm} | Ecole de Saint-Ouen, Rouen (France) |
| {http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans/photo.html#Tidal bores, mascaret, pororoca} | Gallery of photographs |
| {http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans/civ3140.html#Surges} | Explanations on tidal bores |
| {http://boreridersclub.tripod.com/Club.html} | Severn Bore Rider Club (UK) |
| {http://www.did.sarawak.gov.my/benak/benak_gallery.htm} | Tidal Bore at Batang Lupar (Malaysia) |
| {http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans/mascaret.html} |
Tidal bore of the Seine river |
| {http://www.portofcalcutta.com/} | Information on Hoogly tidal bore
times |

CHANSON, H. (2003). "Mixing and
Dispersion in Tidal Bores. A Review." Proc.
Intl Conf. on Estuaries & Coasts ICEC 2003, Hangzhou, China,
Nov. 8-11, Intl Research & Training Center on Erosion &
Sedimentation Ed., Vol. 2, pp. 763-769 (ISBN 7 900 662 67 7/G.79). (Download PDF File)
CHANSON, H. (2012). "Momentum Considerations in Hydraulic Jumps and Bores." Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, ASCE, Vol. 138, No. 4, pp. 382-385 (DOI 10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000409) (ISSN 0733-9437). (Postprint at UQeSpace) (PDF file)
CHANSON, H., and BRATTBERG, T. (2000). "Experimental Study of the Air-Water Shear Flow in a Hydraulic Jump." Intl Jl of Multiphase Flow, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 583-607 (ISSN 0301-9322). (download PDF file)
DONNELLY, C., and CHANSON, H. (2002). "Environmental impact of a Tidal Bore on Tropical Rivers." Proc. 5th Intl River Management Symp., Brisbane, Australia, Sept., 3-6, 9 pages. (Download PDF File)
HENDERSON, F.M. (1966). "Open Channel Flow." MacMillan Company, New York, USA.
JONES, E. (2003). Person. Comm., 26 March.
LYNCH, D.K. (1982). "Tidal Bores." Scientific American, Vol. 247, No. 4, Oct., pp. 134-143.
MALANDAIN, J.J. (1988). "La Seine au Temps du Mascaret." ('The Seine River at the Time of the Mascaret.') Le Chasse-Marée, No. 34, pp. 30-45 (in French).
TRICKER, R.A.R. (1965). "Bores, Breakers, Waves and Wakes." American Elsevier Publ. Co., New York, USA.
Hubert CHANSON thanks Dr Eric Jones for his helpful
discussion and advice. Photographs courtesy of Sequana-Normandie
(Caudebec-en-Caux, France), Jean-Jacques MALANDAIN, Dr Eric JONES,
Professor Howell PEREGRINE, Petitcodiac Riverkeeper.
Hubert CHANSON
is a Professor in Civil Engineering,
Hydraulic Engineering and Environmental Fluid Mechanics at
the University of Queeensland,
Australia. His research interests include design of hydraulic
structures, experimental investigations of two-phase flows, applied
hydrodynamics, hydraulic engineering, water quality modelling,
environmental fluid mechanics, estuarine processes and
natural resources. He has been an active consultant for both
governmental agencies and private organisations. His publication record
includes over 620 international refereed papers and his work was cited
over 3,700 times (WoS) to 6,300 times (Google
Scholar) since 1990.
Hubert Chanson is the
author
of several books : "Hydraulic
Design
of
Stepped Cascades, Channels, Weirs and Spillways" (Pergamon, 1995), "Air Bubble Entrainment in Free-Surface
Turbulent Shear Flows" (Academic
Press, 1997), "The Hydraulics of
Open Channel Flow : An Introduction" (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1st
edition 1999, 2nd editon 2004),
"The Hydraulics of Stepped Chutes and
Spillways" (Balkema, 2001), "Environmental Hydraulics of
Open Channel
Flows" (Butterworth-Heinemann,
2004), "Applied
Hydrodynamics: an Introduction of Ideal and Real Fluid Flows" (CRC Press, 2009),
and "Tidal Bores,
Aegir, Eagre, Mascaret, Pororoca: Theory And Observations" (World
Scientific, 2011). He
co-authored two further books "Fluid
Mechanics
for Ecologists" (IPC Press,
2002) and "Fluid Mechanics for Ecologists. Student Edition" (IPC, 2006). His textbook "The
Hydraulics of Open Channel Flows : An
Introduction" has already been translated into Spanish (McGraw-Hill Interamericana)
and Chinese (Hydrology Bureau of Yellow River Conservancy
Committee), and the second
edition was published in 2004. In 2003, the IAHR
presented him with the 13th Arthur Ippen
Award for outstanding
achievements in hydraulic engineering. The American Society of Civil
Engineers, Environmental and Water Resources Institute (ASCE-EWRI)
presented him with the 2004 award for the Best Practice paper in the
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering ("Energy
Dissipation and Air Entrainment in
Stepped Storm Waterway" by Chanson and Toombes 2002). Hubert
Chanson edited further several books : "Fluvial,
Environmental and
Coastal Developments in Hydraulic
Engineering" (Mossa, Yasuda & Chanson 2004, Balkema), "Hydraulics.
The Next
Wave" (Chanson & Macintosh 2004, Engineers
Australia), "Hydraulic
Structures: a
Challenge to Engineers and Researchers" (Matos & Chanson 2006, The University of Queensland), "Experiences
and Challenges in Sewers:
Measurements and Hydrodynamics" (Larrate & Chanson 2008,
The University of Queensland),
"Hydraulic
Structures: Useful
Water Harvesting Systems or Relics?" (Janssen & Chanson 2010,
The University of Queensland),
"Balance and
Uncertainty: Water in a Changing World" (Valentine et al. 2011, Engineers Australia).
He chaired the Organisation of the 34th
IAHR World Congress held in Brisbane, Australia between 26
June and 1 July 2011.
His Internet home page is http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans.
He also developed a gallery of photographs website {http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans/photo.html}
that received more than 2,000 hits per month since inception.
More about tidal bores ... More pictures of tidal bores are here.
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