at which lunar phase are tides least pronounced

Nevertheless, there are local areas in both the Arctic and Antarctic with favorable geomorphology that have macrotidal ranges. The small tides characterizing most polar areas today are the result of local geomorphic features: the Arctic Ocean is too small to have its own tide and has only a small connection to the Atlantic Ocean that prevents effective northward propagation of the tidal wave, and Antarctica has narrow and deep continental shelves that do not accentuate the tide.

Models of real-world tides today demonstrate that tides in shallow water (<100 m) have amplitude peaks at 50° N to 70° N and 50° S to 60° S that are associated with especially wide continental shelves and coastal embayments in which the tidal wave is close to resonance. Tidal ranges and tidal-current speeds increase as the tidal wave propagates onto and across continental shelves especially large ranges and fast currents can occur in coastal embayments and in straits that join two larger bodies of water. Instead, the tide behaves as a set of shallow-water waves that are guided around the world by the continents. This belief appears to be based on equilibrium tidal theory that predicts the existence of two ocean–surface bulges centered at low latitudes however, it is a misconception because this theory is a poor model for real-world tides. A common belief about tidal sedimentation is that tides are always larger near the equator and negligible at high latitudes.

At which lunar phase are tides least pronounced