The Moon and the Changing of The Tides

Ever wondered what makes our ocean's tides rise and fall? Well, from what I briefly know is that the moon has something to do with it. There is some sort of a "gravitational pull" that the moon has on the earth, I guess when it's doing it's rotations around the earth, which then makes our ocean's waters rise and fall.


Another thing I wondered about is on tide calendars there are always the different moon phases along with the times when there is low tide and high tide. There must be some relationship there I guess.







Another reason...

Why this question came to mind is that from the movie "Bruce Almighty" starring Jim Carrey, who wishes he was God and then it happens, it shows a part where he pulls the "full" moon in real close to earth. He was trying to make it romantic and all for his girlfriend. Well, what had happened when he pulled the moon in real close the next morning on the news he comes to find out it had created a tsunami in other parts of the world. Therefore, even coming from a movie, this had me thinking the moon really does have an effect on the rising and falling of the ocean's tides.


So, my question here is what are the effects that the moon has on our ocean's rising and falling tides?

First of all here is a description of what a tide is:

Tides are cyclic rising and falling of Earth's ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the moon and the sun acting on the earth. Tides cause changes in the depth of the sea, and also produce oscillating (turning) currents known as tidal streams, making prediction of tides are important for coastal navigation. The strip of seashore that is submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide is called the intertidal zone which is an important ecological product of ocean tides.
The changing tide produced at a given location on the Earth is the result of the changing positions of the Moon and Sun relative to the Earth coupled with the effects of the rotation of the Earth and the local bathymetry (um....how do you say that, well in other words it means deep).

Now, how does the moon have an effect on the tides...

Doing some research on the internet I've come across many different websites that contained a lot of information. It pretty much comes down to the same meaning of gravity forces that pull between the earth, the moon, and the sun which causes low and high tides of the ocean. Yet I learned durning different parts of the year the tides are different, spring and neap tides which are also called lunar tides. Here is this moon tidal website that the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) created and it goes really into detailed information on how it actually can be quite "techniqually" complicated on the effects that the moon has on the ocean. There are pictures and all. You should definitly go and check it out.