The Lunar Tides Antipodal Expression: A Hypothesis

In 2025, surfers off Western Australia filmed a striking phenomenon: a localized vortex that repeatedly erupted into a 40‑meter vertical jet, with waves radiating outward while the surrounding sea remained calm. Decades earlier, the U.S.–Soviet Polymode Expedition documented large, rotating mesoscale eddies in the North Atlantic—a region roughly antipodal to the West Australian site. This essay proposes that these two phenomena may be linked through the Moon’s tidal forcing and the focusing effect of specific seafloor topography. While horizontal tidal currents (tractive forces) are zero at the exact sublunar and antipodal points, water converges toward these points from the surrounding 45° zone. When that converging flow meets a shallow reef or seamount, it can produce dramatic upwelling (jet) or downwelling (eddy) events. The hypothesis is testable through targeted observations and invites interdisciplinary investigation.