<p>As part of my worldbuilding for a book, I’d like to have a planet with extreme variance in its tides. I want lowest tide  reveal about 30 miles of floodplain, and occasional massive tidal waves. I understand that, in theory, this might be achieved by giving the planet several relatively large moons with different orbital periods, such that sometimes they are spaced out so they balance out the tides (a kind of medium tide), and sometimes they are all together on one side of the planet so that they create a highest / lowest tide.</p>

<p>How stable can such a system be? (The star and other solar system features can be whatever to improve stability, if that is a thing)</p>

<p>Any spitballed numbers for viable orbital periods and tidal patterns?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-13T07:19:19.053Z
There is a Worldbuilding site, that does better with such hypotheticals.
James K
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-13T09:28:18.493Z
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is about a hypothetical scenario and would be more appropriate on SE’s Workdbuilding site.
Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-13T18:28:47.737Z
"30 miles of floodplain..."  just pick a big enough planet and 30 miles is insignificant.  But if you want a planet with around 1 gee surface gravity, then things get interesting.
Carl Witthoft
<orbital-mechanics>
Tides with 3 Largish Moons
007th Bondsmith
# Tides with 3 Largish Moons

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-02-13)

As part of my worldbuilding for a book, I’d like to have a planet with extreme variance in its tides. I want lowest tide reveal about 30 miles of floodplain, and occasional massive tidal waves. I understand that, in theory, this might be achieved by giving the planet several relatively large moons with different orbital periods, such that sometimes they are spaced out so they balance out the tides (a kind of medium tide), and sometimes they are all together on one side of the planet so that they create a highest / lowest tide.

How stable can such a system be? (The star and other solar system features can be whatever to improve stability, if that is a thing)

Any spitballed numbers for viable orbital periods and tidal patterns?

**Tags:** orbital-mechanics

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There is a Worldbuilding site, that does better with such hypotheticals.  
> **username_2**: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is about a hypothetical scenario and would be more appropriate on SE’s Workdbuilding site.  
> **username_3**: "30 miles of floodplain..."  just pick a big enough planet and 30 miles is insignificant.  But if you want a planet with around 1 gee surface gravity, then things get interesting.  

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