How Does the Moon Affect the Tides Exactly?

The moon pulls on Earth's oceans like a giant magnet, but it’s not magic, it’s gravity. When the moon is close to a part of Earth, that ocean area gets pulled up into a tidal bulge. On the other side of Earth, another bulge forms because the planet is being pulled away from the water there. As Earth spins, these two bulges move around the world, and that’s how we get tides.

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Examples

  1. Imagine being on a beach, as the moon pulls water up near you, that’s high tide.
  2. When the moon is far away from your side of Earth, the water there gets pulled away, that’s low tide.
  3. During full moon nights, tides are especially high because both the sun and moon pull on the oceans together.

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