Marina
The tide gauge of Cascais
A tide gauge is used nowadays to measuring sea level and prevent tsunamis. Before it became so useful, this mechanism was experimental to test the knowledge of the sea and the times. Results for years and years were the study to understand the behavior of the sea… of course, it is still unpredictable, but the tide gauge will be the closest dictionary of the sea we will ever had.
The first system was created in Paris in 1877 by J. Wagner, but it was only installed later, in 1882 and it became one of the first European system to collect data about the level of the sea, its tides and waves. It worked for several years, always getting some changing.
In Portugal the first tide gauge was installed in Cascais in 1882 and it became very important because it became the Altimetric Datrum, the Zero Reference, which means it was the reference for all the sea date in Portugal.
The Tide Gauge of Cascais is very sought by International Scientists, specially from Permanent Service For Mean Sea Level, which receives our results for more than 120 years. Currently the most important result from the Tide Gauge of Cascais is about the rise of the level of the sea in 1,3mm per year in 20th century.
You can visit the Tide Gauge of Cascais in Cascais Marine, near by the Cidadela.