Search
Brazil
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
French Guiana
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Finland
France
Greece
the Netherlands
Hungary
Ireland
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
Poland
Portugal
the United Kingdom
the Czech Republic
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Canada
the United States
Mexico
the Dominican RepublicTurkey
South Africa
Australia
Fiji
New Zealand
Papua New GuineaIllustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Interactive maps
Earth and travel
The current Moon phase, the dates of upcoming phases, and an illustration showing how the Moon and the Sun pull the sea water.
The Moon's gravity stretches Earth's water toward two sides: the one facing it and the opposite one. The Sun does the same with less than half the strength. Move the slider to watch the Moon go around.
In the drawing the water is greatly exaggerated and distances are not to scale: the Moon is about 30 Earth diameters away, and the Sun almost 400 times farther than the Moon.
Dates and times in your device's time zone. Supermoon: a full moon near perigee, the point of the orbit closest to Earth. Every new and full moon brings a spring tide.
Calculated on your device with Jean Meeus's formulas (Astronomical Algorithms); times may be off by a few minutes. For the tide time at a place, check the official tide table for that country.
The Moon has no light of its own: it reflects the Sun’s light. Half of it is always lit, but as it moves around the Earth we see that lit half from different angles. That produces the phases.
A full cycle, from one new moon to the next, takes 29.5 days. That’s the lunar month, the basis for the idea of a month in many ancient calendars.
At new moon the Moon sits between the Earth and the Sun, with the lit side facing away from us, so it is barely visible. About seven days later comes the first quarter, with half the disc lit. At full moon the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon and the disc appears fully lit. One week later, at last quarter, only half the disc is visible again.
In the southern hemisphere the waxing crescent lights up on the left and the waning crescent on the right. In the northern hemisphere it’s the opposite. That’s why the saying that the Moon “lies” (the C of crescent looks like the waning shape and vice versa) only works in the north: here in Brazil the waxing crescent really looks like a C.
The crescent appears in the late afternoon in the west and sets during the night. The full moon rises at sunset and stays in the sky all night. The waning moon rises before dawn and can still be seen in the morning.
The Moon’s gravity pulls more strongly on the side of the Earth that faces it and less strongly on the opposite side. That difference stretches the oceans into two bulges, one on each side of the planet. As the Earth rotates, each coast passes through those bulges: those are the two high tides each day, with two low tides between them.
About six hours elapse between a high tide and the following low tide. Because the Moon also moves in its orbit, tides occur about 50 minutes later each day.
The Sun pulls on the water too, but because it is much farther away it exerts less than half the effect of the Moon.
At new moon and full moon the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned (syzygy). The forces add and a spring tide occurs: higher high tides and lower low tides.
At first and last quarter the Sun and Moon are at right angles (quadrature). They pull against each other and a neap tide occurs, with a small difference between high and low tide.
The largest tides of the year usually occur near the equinoxes, in March and September, and when the full or new moon coincides with perigee, the point where the Moon is closest to Earth.
In many coastal destinations the tide controls what you can do. The natural pools of Porto de Galinhas and Maragogi, in Pernambuco and Alagoas, appear at low tide, and Pedra Furada in Jericoacoara can only be reached on foot along the beach at low tide. The best days are new moon and full moon, when low tides go lower.
São Luís, in Maranhão, has one of the largest tides in Brazil: it exceeds 6 meters and reaches about 7 meters at spring tide. Worldwide, the record is Bay of Fundy in Canada, at about 16 meters.
Before you go, check the tide table from the Brazilian Navy, which shows the time and height of tides for ports all along the coast.
When the Moon passes over the equator, the two daily high tides are similar everywhere on the planet. When it is farther north or south, away from the equator, one of the day’s high tides becomes much larger than the other, while near the equator they remain similar. Macapá, in Amapá, lies right on the equator line.
At the mouth of the Amazon and on rivers in Pará and Amapá, spring tide pushes seawater upriver and forms the pororoca, a wave that can exceed 3 to 4 meters and travel for kilometers. It is strongest from January to May, at full moon and new moon. In São Domingos do Capim, Pará, there is even a pororoca surfing festival.
Places in the guide related to this topic.
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil
France
Canada
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil
Today’s phase appears at the top of this page, calculated in real time by your device, with the illuminated portion, the Moon’s distance and the dates of upcoming phases.
The full cycle takes 29.5 days, so each of the four main phases lasts about 7 days. New moon, first quarter, full moon and last quarter are precise moments, and the days around them are given the same names.
Because half of it is always illuminated by the Sun and, as it orbits the Earth, we see that lit half from different angles.
The Moon’s gravity stretches the oceans into two bulges, one facing the Moon and the other on the opposite side of the Earth. As the Earth spins, each coast passes through them and experiences two high tides and two low tides each day.
It is a spring tide, which happens at new moon and full moon when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned and their forces add. High tides are higher and low tides are lower.
New moon and full moon, which bring spring tides and the lowest low tides. Check the low-tide time on the tide table, because it changes daily.
Because water piles up on both sides of the Earth: the side facing the Moon and the opposite side. As the Earth rotates each place passes through both bulges.
In Maranhão. In São Luís the tide exceeds 6 meters and reaches about 7 meters at spring tide.
It is a wave that travels upriver when spring tide pushes seawater against the river current, at the mouth of the Amazon and on rivers in Pará and Amapá. It can exceed 3 to 4 meters and is strongest from January to May, at full moon and new moon.
