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Arip tide, orriptide, is a strong offshore current that is caused by thetide pulling water through aninlet along abarrier beach, at alagoon or inlandmarina where tide water flows steadily out to sea duringebb tide. It is a strong tidal flow of water withinestuaries and other enclosed tidal areas. The riptides become the strongest where the flow is constricted. When there is a falling or ebbing tide, the outflow water is strongly flowing through an inlet toward the sea, especially once stabilised byjetties.[1]
During these falling and ebbing tides, a riptide can carry a person far offshore. For example, the ebbing tide atShinnecock Inlet inSouthampton, New York, extends more than 300 metres (980 ft) offshore.[2] Because of this, riptides are typically more powerful thanrip currents.
During slack tide, the water is motionless for a short period of time until the flooding or rising tide starts pushing the sea water landward through the inlet. Riptides also occur at constricted areas inbays and lagoons where there are no waves near an inlet.
These strong, reversing currents can also be termedebb jets,flood jet, ortidal jets by coastal engineers because they carry large quantities of sand outward that formsandbars far out in the ocean or into the bay outside the inlet channel. The term "ebb jet" would be used for a tidal current leaving an enclosed tidal area, and "flood jet" for the equivalent tidal current entering it.
The termrip tide is often incorrectly used to refer torip currents, which are not tidal flows. A rip current is a strong, narrow jet of water that moves away from the beach and into the ocean as a result of localwave motion. Rip currents can flow quickly, are unpredictable, and come about from what happens to waves as they interact with the shape of the sea bed. In contrast, a rip tide is caused by tidal movements, as opposed to wave action, and is a predictable rise and fall of the water level.[3]
The United StatesNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration comments:
Rip currents are not rip tides. A specific type of current associated withtides may include both the ebb and flood tidal currents that are caused by egress and ingress of the tide throughinlets and the mouths ofestuaries,embayments, andharbors. These currents may causedrowning deaths, but these tidal currents or tidal jets are separate and distinct phenomena from rip currents. Recommended terms for these phenomena include ebb jet, flood jet, or tidal jet.[4][dead link]
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