Altamaha Basin > Hydrology > Water Quality > Environmental Threats > Human Impacts >
       Cultural Features > Coastal Habitats > Tributaries > Plants > Animals > Sapelo Island

Tides along the Georgia coast have an average range, or amplitude, of 2.4 m and a spring tide range of 3.4 m. The hydraulic energy resulting from the rise and fall of the tides is a major factor in many of the ecological processes active in the marshes.

Most tidal streams are contained within steep banks and natural levees which create a pattern of marsh flooding in which water moves along progressively smaller channels which eventually dissipate in headwaters on the marsh surface. Tidal water flows directly across levees only on the highest spring tides.

more on marshes