Is there a planetary setup with extremely long tide cycles?
On Earth, tides generally tie to a 12 or 24 hour cycle depending on the location. The exact times and heights are generally based on the shape of the sea, and the positions of the moon and sun.
What I'm wondering is if there's a planetary system setup that would give very long cycles - say at least a month - between high and low tides.
Additional requirements:
- The planet needs to be habitable by humans (habitable zone of the star, or otherwise kept warm/cold enough).
- Tides should be at least as extreme (in terms of height between high/low tides) as on Earth. More extreme is better.
- The planet should be of roughly the same composition as Earth - no making it out of diamond and then sticking it inside the Roche limit of a gas giant or the like.
- No magic.
Note: It seems like you could just change the period of the moon's orbit to get this, but I believe that would also involve changing the moon's orbit and mass, which would change tides in other ways. So it's not quite as simple as that.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/11832. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
0 comment threads