text: Abstract 
   
   JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 116, C11040, 8 PP., 2011 
   
   doi:10.1029/2011JC007411 
   
   Lunar tides in Loch Ness, Scotland 
   
   Lunar tides in Loch Ness, Scotland 
   
   David T. Pugh 
   
   National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool, UK 
   
   Philip L. Woodworth 
   
   National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool, UK 
   
   Machiel S. Bos 
   
   CIMAR/CIIMAR, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal ||||| 
   
   The Loch Ness monster lives in a giant carpenter's level. 
   
   Just as the bubble in a carpenter's level moves back and forth depending on the surface it rests upon, Scotland's Loch Ness tilts back and forth according to the movement of the ground beneath it caused by the tides on the nearby North Sea. The motion is so subtle GPS couldn't even track it. 
   
   When the tide comes in on the North Sea, 13 kilometers (8 miles) to the east of Loch Ness, the increased pressure on the seafloor deforms the Earth, a process called ocean tidal loading. And while the moon controls the tides of the North Sea, and affects the loch as well, the wobbly movement of the land from the pressure of the changing tides is what really determines the loch's levels. The water in the loch acts like a bowl of water on a wobbly table, sloshing according to the movement of the land it rests upon. 
   
   The depth of the loch changed by 1.5 millimeters (0.06 inches) at its different ends depending on whether the North Sea tide was in or not, according to researchers at the National Oceanography Center in the UK and the University of Porto, Portugal. 
   
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   The researchers used pressure sensors distributed throughout Loch Ness to measure depth changes to the incredible accuracy of 0.1 mm (0.004 in) over the 35 km (22 mi) length. 
   
   "Our tilt accuracy of better than 10−8, measured over 35 km, demonstrates Loch Ness as one the world's longest and most accurate tiltmeters," the researchers said in the abstract of their paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. 
   
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   These measurements may be a first for a European lake with land shifting tides due to ocean tidal loading. 
   
   IMAGES: 
   
   Loch Ness with Urquhart Castle in the foreground. (Sam Fentress, Wikimedia Commons) ||||| If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.
target: – UK scientists have made a nifty, unprecedented discovery about Scotland's Loch Ness, but prepare to be a little disappointed. They found that tides from the nearby North Sea caused the land underneath the lake to shift ever so slightly, resulting in a change in depth of 0.06 inches at either end, depending on whether the tide was in or out. One professor likened it to a carpenter's bubble level, notes the BBC. "I have described Loch Ness as the largest spirit level in the world," he says. "If you were on a boat in the middle of the loch, you certainly wouldn't notice it," adds another. "But a tide like this has never been observed in a western European lake before." The scientists used underwater pressure sensors at various spots in the lake to get the astonishing accuracy, explains Discovery. The hope is that the method can be used at other lakes to shed more light on how oceans affect the Earth's crust. (The study, here, fails to mention the elephant in the room, but a Fark headline suspects that the lake level changes because Nessie is getting out to towel off.)