The rise and fall of seawater because of the gravitational forces of the Sun and the Moon are called tides. Sea waves produced by tides are known as tidal waves. The rise of seawater and its movement towards the coast is called tide. As a result, when the water level is high, it is known as high water tide. The fall of seawater and its movement towards the sea is called ebb. The resultant low water level is called low tidewater. The difference between high tidewater and low tide water is called tide range. The main causes of tides are
What Causes Tides?
- Tides are basically caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun.
- The Earth revolves around the Sun and the Moon revolves around the Earth in an elliptical orbit. The distance between the Earth and the Moon changes many times during a month.
- The surface of the Earth which faces the Moon experiences the maximum gravitational pull of the Moon. As a result, the water of the Earth’s surface gets pulled up and thus high tides occur.
- High tides also occur in the part of the Earth which is facing away from the Moon because of the centrifugal force (the force which draws a rotating body away from the centre of rotation) of the gravitational pull of the Moon causing an outward bulge of water.
- The period of farthest distance between the Moon and the Earth is called apogee. The period of the nearest distance between the Moon and the Earth is known as perigee.
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