Spring Tides & Neap Tides

The Sun affects the ocean tides, but the Moon plays the biggest role. Although the Sun's gravitational pull on the Earth is 178 times stronger than the Moon's, the Moon is much closer to our planet, so it has more impact on tides than the Sun. The Sun's gravitational force, DOES affect the tides, though. Just not as much as the Moon.

Spring tides are a special event that happens when the Moon and Sun are BOTH lined up. This makes the gravitational pull VERY strong and the high tides are EXTREMELY high. This happens every two weeks when the moon is in the full moon phase, or new moon phase.

Seven days after a spring tide, the sun and moon are at right angles to each other. When this happens, the bulge of the ocean caused by the sun partially cancels out the bulge of the ocean caused by the moon. This produces moderate tides known as neap tides, meaning that high tides are a little lower and low tides are a little higher than average. Neap tides occur during the first and third quarter moon, when the moon appears "half full."