The highest tides on Earth occur in the Minas Basin, the eastern extremity of the Bay of Fundy, where the average tide range is 12 metres and can reach 16 metres. The primary cause of the immense tides of Fundy is a resonance in the Bay of Fundy-Gulf of Maine system. Like a father pushing his daughter on a swing, the gentle Atlantic tidal pulse pushes the waters of the Bay of Fundy-Gulf of Maine basin at nearly the optimum frequency to cause a large to-and-fro oscillation. The grestest slosh occurs at the head (northeast end) of the system. Because Earth rotates counterclockwise in the Norhern Hemisphere, the tides are higher in Minas Basin (Wolfville-Truro area) than in Chignecto Bay (Amherst-Moncton area).

Wolfville is located on the southern shore of Minas Basin, the northeast arm of the Bay of Fundy. Well before low tide is reached, Wolfville's small harbour is literally empty. Four kms west of Wolfville, at the Port Williams bridge and wharf, the large vertical range of the tides may be seen to better advantage (a parking lot is located on the Wolfville side of the bridge). Views of the vast areas of sea bottom uncovered by the falling tide may be had at Evangeline Beach and at Avonport Beach, both about 8 kms east of Wolfville. In late July and August, the extensive intertidal flats in these areas are visitied by hundreds of thousands of shorebirds on their annual migration from the Arctic to South America.

Large areas of the original flats now lie behind man-made dykes. This conversion of tidal flats into rich farmland began with Acadian settlers in the seventeeth century. Today long dykes and thousands of hectares of productive level fields may be seen in the vicinity of Grand Pre, Wolfville, Port Williams and Canard.