ICSE Class 9 Answered

Tides are caused due to the following reasons:

• Tides are basically caused due to the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun.

   

• The Earth revolves round 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 the 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 on the part of the Earth which is facing away from the Moon due to the centrifugal force (the force that draws a rotating body away from the center of rotation) of the gravitational pull of the Moon causing an outward bulge of water.