During a full moon is the tide high or low?

Answer 1

You have high and low tides during a full moon and at all other times. The full moon will make the high tides higher and the low tides lower.

Answer 2

Several factors affect the tides including the time of year, atmospheric pressure, proximity of the sun and driving wind but the one thing that has a greater effect than all these is the moon.

The moon exerts a gravitational pull on the earth and everything on it - you, me, the mountains, the trees etc but the effect is so small we don't notice it. However, because the seas and oceans are large bodies of water they can be pulled around with a noticeable effect.

To visualise how the moon moves in relation to the sun and the earth imagine a clock face with the earth at the centre of it and the moon going around the edge of the clock. The sun is somewhere off to the left. When the moon is at the 9 O'clock position the alignment is sun moon earth, the side of the moon facing earth is in darkness and this is a New Moon. As the moon moves towards the 12 O'clock position more and more of it begins to be illuminated (waxing), once it reaches 12 O'clock this is what's called the First Quarter, as the moon continues more of it becomes illuminated by the sun until it reaches the 3 O'clock position when it's fully illuminated and we get a Full Moon - the alignment now being sun earth moon. As it moves away from 3 O'clock it begins to go into shadow (waning), at 6 O'clock it's what's known as the Last Quarter and as it continues back towards the 9 O'clock position it fades more and more into shadow until it completes it's cycle and becomes a New Moon again. The entire cycle takes about 27 days so there's approximately 2 weeks between a full moon and a new moon and likewise, between a new moon and a full moon.

The sun also pulls on the seas and oceans so when the sun earth and moon are in alignment (9 O'clock and 3 O'clock positions) there is the greatest gravitational pull. When the moon is out of alignment (12 O'clock and 6 O'clock positions) the sun is pulling in one direction and the moon is pulling in another direction.

The effect that all this has is to cause the highest tides at the times of the Full Moon and New Moon and the lowest tides at the times of the First and Last Quarters.

The tides that coincide with a Full Moon are slightly higher than those that coincide with the New Moon and to put it into some sort of context, if the average high tide was 5 meters than at the time of a New Moon it might be 7 meters, at the time of the Full Moon it might be 7.5 meters and at the times if the First and Last Quarters maybe 3 meters.

Strictly speaking, the highest tides occur about 2 days after the Full and New Moons - this is because the seas and oceans are so vast that it takes a couple of days for them to stop advancing and start receding.

Another point of note is that around the times of the Full and New Moons the tides go a lot further out and come a lot further in but around the times of the First and Last Quarters they don't go out as far and don't come in as far.

And another point of note is that the highest and lowest tides of all occur around the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes (first days of spring and autumn / fall) when the sun's gravitational pull is at it's strongest. The highest tide of the year will occur a couple of days after a Full Moon at the date closest to the first day of spring / fall.

If these tides coincide with a driving wind and an area of low pressure then a storm surge occurs such as swept down the English Channel in 1953 flooding large parts of the English and Dutch coasts and drowning hundreds of people.

This has turned out to be a long answer, especially as I could have answered it with a single word - High. Anyway, hope that it's helped by trying to explain it rather than just give an answer.

Bear in mind that this is a simplified answer and the model of the sun, moon and earth is a very simplified one - in reality the earth rotates on it's axis (a day), the moon orbits the earth (a lunar month) but doesn't rotate (that's why we always see the same side of the moon) and together the earth and moon orbit the sun (a year) and various other planets and things get in the way to further complicate matters.

Contrary to what some people believe there aren't necessarily two high and two low tides each day - the time between successive high or low tides is approximately 12 and a half hours. On most days there are 2 high and 2 low tides but on some days there will only be 1 high or low tide. And also, tides rarely spend the same amount of time going out as they do coming in, they may for example, take 8 hours to go out but only 4 and a half hours to come back in again.

Answer 3

All a full moon means is that the angle of the sun and the moon allows fo rmore of the moon to be illuminated from our perspective. It has nothing to do with closeness of the moon or change in gravity.
Every day has 2 lows and 2 highs. Full moon lasts a whole night, do you really think that the water stays high for hours? It doesn't. And the next day it's just a little less than high, does that mean it's almost high tide all night? No.

Answer 4

There is still both a high tide and a low tide. but.. the gravitational pull of the moon makes the water level a bit higher in both the high tide and the low tide. ummm wait a minute.. if the moon is full that means it's on the other side of the earth from the sun.. hmmm... the sun and moon on the same side would have a greater pull than having the moon on the other side... ummm... I'd better google this..

hmmm.. neap tides,,, spring tides,,, *reads* o ---- O ----0

well,, this site says that the tides are both higher when it is either full or new moon, cuz they are times when the moon is lined up with the sun either on the same side or opposite... and that is called a spring tide.... and when there is a 90 degree angle the tides are lower and that is called neap tide... but here is the link with lots of graphics and stuff:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moontides/

Answer 5

The tidal RANGE is greater during spring tides (full and new moon).

The high tides are higher and the low tides are lower.

During spring tides the tide caused by the sun works in concert with the larger lunar tide.

When the moon is near first or last quarter (neap tides), the solar and lunar tides are out of phase- so their combined effect isn't as dramatic.

Answer 6

Hight tides occure with the moon, read below to find out why.

The moon's gravitational force pulls on water in the oceans so that there are "bulges" in the ocean on both sides of the planet. The moon pulls water toward it, and this causes the bulge toward the moon. The bulge on the side of the Earth opposite the moon is caused by the moon "pulling the Earth away" from the water on that side.

If you are on the coast and the moon is directly overhead, you should experience a high tide. If the moon is directly overhead on the opposite side of the planet, you should also experience a high tide.

Answer 7

the tide goes through its normal daily cycle all during the full moon. the only difference is that the high tides are higher during the full moon

Answer 8

As Dr. Nightcall implied, the moon phase and tides really don't have much to do with one another, except for spring tides and neap (sp?) tides: the highest tides (spring tides) occur when the moon is full and the lowest tides (neap tides) occur when the moon is in its quarter phase.

Answer 9

it is high because The gravitational force is more between earth and moon during full moon day

Answer 10

it will be a low tide.because of the gravity pull from the moon,the water will all "gather" near the moon.