What causes tidal phenomena?

Tides happen because the moon and the sun pull on Earth’s water, just like when you tug on a rope and it moves.

Imagine you're playing with a bucket of water. If your friend pulls on one side of the bucket, the water moves toward that side, that's like how the moon pulls on Earth’s oceans, making them bulge out. When the moon is near, the tide gets higher, and when it’s far away, the tide gets lower.

Now picture your friend pulling from both sides at once, that’s what happens when the sun also pulls on the water. Sometimes the sun and moon pull in the same direction, making the tides really big, these are called high tides. Other times they pull in opposite directions, making the tides smaller, those are low tides.

The ocean is always moving because of this big, slow dance between Earth, the moon, and the sun. Even though you can’t see them, their pulls make the water rise and fall, just like when your friend tugs on that bucket, making waves in the water.