
The strongest pull occurs on the points closest to the Moon, and the weakest on the points farthest away, but every bit of water is affected. This happens because the Moon’s gravity affects the entire Earth, pulling at every point on our planet. It might seem strange that the ocean would bulge on the side farthest from the Moon as well as the side closest to it. This effect on the solid Earth can be detected by scientific instruments, but we can watch the same changes to Earth’s oceans just by visiting the beach.

As the Moon’s gravity tugs at Earth, it shifts Earth’s mass, distorting its shape ever so slightly into that of a football ― elongated at the equator and shortened at the poles. tables to note carefully the heights as well as the times of the tides. When you see the tide roll in or out, what you’re really seeing is a cycle of small changes to the distribution of our planet’s oceans. Typically at high tide there would be a slow, fatter wave breaking, and a fast more hollow wave breaking at low tide, with those characteristics transitioning. High water is the maximum height reached by each rising tide, and low water is. The highest highs and lowest lows, called spring tides, occur when the moon and the sun are aligned. As distant as the Moon may seem, its gravitational pull on Earth plays a huge role in the formation of tides. The height of the tides varies over the course of a month.

Look up at the Moon, and you’re seeing the main cause of the surge and retreat of oceans from our shores. Understanding tide heights and when high or low tides occur can help you decide the best time to explore tide pools, dig for clams, anchor your boat or. Enter a minimum of 3 characters of a station name to retrieve a listing of stations containing those exact characters in their name. You walk along a beach, seashells, driftwood and seaweed left by the retreating tides at your feet. The station search can find Tide Prediction stations by name, station id, or by latitude/longitude.
