Tides and Tidal Currents of the Yellow and East China Seas during the Last 13000 Years

In order to investigate the paleotidal structure and current pattern in the Yellow and East China seas (YECS) since the late Wisconsin, which is the last glacial maximum period, a two-dimensional version of the Princeton ocean model is used. We assume that subtracting the sea-level differences from the present one can produce paleobasins and that the paleotide did not differ greatly from the present one in the adjacent deep seas, the northwestern Pacific Ocean and the East Sea. We could successfully simulate the paleo-M$_2$ tides and tidal currents of 9000, 11000 and 13000 yr B.P. The result of the model shows considerable differences in the tidal pattern in each period. As the eustatic sea level rose, the amplitudes of the paleotides and the number of the amphidromic points generally increased, but the tidal currents in each paleobasin were strong and about the same order as the present day's. Based on these paleotide calculations, we suggest that there should have been active erosion in the paleobasin as in the present YECS, and the erosion should have played an important role on widening the paleobasin to the present shape, YECS.