Tide Pool

ocean · rocky shore · animals · tides

Water gets trapped. When the ocean tide goes out, seawater gets stuck in shallow pools between rocks on the shore. These pools can be just a few inches deep or several feet across, creating little worlds of their own.

The moon pulls the ocean. Tides happen because the moon and sun's gravity pull on Earth's oceans, making the water rise and fall. A full tidal cycle takes about 25 hours and has two high tides and two low tides.

Pools appear and vanish. Most tide pools only exist as separate bodies of water at low tide. When the tide comes back in, the ocean water reconnects with them and they disappear until the next low tide.

Tiny creatures live here. Tide pools are home to starfish, crabs, sea anemones, and other creatures that are adapted to survive in this changing environment where water levels and temperature shift with the tides.