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Assuming a situation similar to this, where the moon causes slower but massive tides that slowly encircle the globe. Would the poles be constantly underwater or not underwater (like A or B below)?:

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Or would it depend on the moon?

Main question: Would a massive tide be closer to A or B or C(something else)?

depperm
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  • Related: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/19503/what-would-infrastructure-look-like-on-interstellars-millers-planet – dot_Sp0T Sep 27 '18 at 13:07
  • Somehow your images make me crave a martini. – Willk Sep 27 '18 at 13:19
  • On a serious note, carve off the shipbuilding question to its own, please. I got nothing for the tides, only the ship and I feel bad to just answer one of the 2 questions (both good!) that you pose here. – Willk Sep 27 '18 at 13:24
  • @Willk see https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/126107/materials-in-a-water-world – depperm Sep 27 '18 at 13:37
  • The question seems to stem from very common misconception, that the tides are caused by the Moon just pulling the water towards itself. No, the tides are caused by the Moon actually deforming the Earth, squishing it slightly, because of the different directions and magnitudes of the gravitational force around the globe. – vsz Sep 27 '18 at 20:26
  • @vsz. ...close but no cigar. Yes there are solid tides in the earth but tide raising forces are caused by the differential attraction of gravity on the earth's water envelope. See the Admiralty Manual of Tides NP 120. – pHred Sep 28 '18 at 12:26
  • @pHred : And was I saying otherwise? "because of the different directions and magnitudes of the gravitational force around the globe" I wasn't merely talking about solid tides. – vsz Sep 28 '18 at 15:21
  • @vsz. Poor phrasing on my part. Not arguing that there is not a variation in the direction and magnitude of tide raising forces. I am stating that solid tides in the earth's sold elements are not related to ocean tides other than in the origin of those forces. See here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_tide. – pHred Sep 30 '18 at 10:01

1 Answers1

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You cannot have neither A or B. Of the two, B is the more implausible: the water is being pulled in 3 directions (up, right and down) by a single moon.

About A, I would expect the two spheres (solid and liquid) to share the same rotation axis, and thus a non zero tidal height also on the side opposite to the moon, more or less like it happens on Earth.

tide height

The poles would practically experience constant low tides.

A situation like A or B would not be happening around one of the principal axis of inertia, and therefore could not happen spontaneously.

L.Dutch
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  • To clarify: the tides are highest directly in line with a moon, lowest at 90 degrees off (along the ecliptic), and intermediate at the poles. – Skyler Sep 27 '18 at 18:25
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    I don't think explaining the antipodal maximum involves any rotation at all. You just have to realise that Earth is in free fall towards the moon, which means in its reference frame the Moon's gravity is zero at the centre of Earth, and therefore negative at the further surface. – Jan Hudec Sep 27 '18 at 18:44