<p>I would like to add some more points.</p>
<p>Titan is indeed tidally locked to Saturn. Numerical calculation shows Titan's tides due to Saturn's gravity is <em>400 times</em> as strong as Moon's tidal effect on Earth. Saturn's gravitational pull on Titan varies as Titan orbits along an elliptical path around the planet every 16 days. As Titan nears the closest point in its orbit around Saturn (pericenter), it feels the maximum gravitational pull and at the farthest point in its orbit (apocenter), Titan feels the minimum gravitational pull. This varying pull causes bulges on Titan which is called solid &quot;tides&quot;. Near the middle of Titan's orbit around Saturn (quadrature), there is still sufficient pull to cause a gravitational distortion, or deviation from a spherical shape. Tides on Titan raised by Saturn's gravity can be as high as 30 feet (10 meters). Titan is believed to have liquid water ocean beneath its surface. If it ever comes out of the surface, it will indeed experience tides.</p>
<p>Source:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/10746/squeezing-and-stretching-titan/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">squeezing and stretching Titan</a></li>
<li><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/337/6093/457" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The Tides of Titan, Luciano Iess, Robert A. Jacobson, Marco Ducci, David J. Stevenson, Jonathan I. Lunine, John W. Armstrong, Sami W. Asmar, Paolo Racioppa, Nicole J. Rappaport, Paolo Tortora, Science  27 Jul 2012:Vol. 337, Issue 6093, pp. 457-459, DOI</a></li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-17T10:32:12.113Z
2020-10-17T17:59:23.560Z
2020-10-17T17:59:23.560Z
Nilay Ghosh
<p>Sort of...  Titan is tidally locked to Saturn, so points the same side toward Saturn all the time.  The tide caused by Saturn on Titan should be nearly unchanging, except that Titan has an elliptical orbit, and is at times closer.  This cases a significant tidal effect, but it doesn't travel like on Earth.  See <a href="https://astronomy.com/magazine/ask-astro/2018/05/the-tides-on-titan#:%7E:text=However%2C%20like%20most%20of%20the,satellites%20can%20still%20experience%20tides." rel="nofollow noreferrer">this article for more information.</a>
This article states that this tide deforms Titan about 33 feet.  I do not know how much the lakes themselves would change though.</p>
<p>The sun should also cause a very minor tide because it is further away.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-22T02:13:56.453Z
2020-10-17T16:32:19.487Z
2020-10-17T16:32:19.487Z
Jonathan
<p>Titan is the only body in the Solar System other than Earth to have large bodies of surface liquid. Since Saturn is much more massive than the Moon, I would expect for tides, if they're present to begin with, to be much larger than the ones here on Earth.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-22T00:34:16.603Z
[Do the Great Lakes have tides?](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gltides.html) and [Why Lakes Don’t Have Tides?](https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/have-you-seen-tides-in-a-lake-really.html) and [There are no tides on the Great Lakes. Here’s why](https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/07/there-are-no-tides-on-the-great-lakes-heres-why.html) and [Are there lakes that have tides?](https://www.quora.com/Are-there-lakes-that-have-tides) and in Physics SE [Why don't lakes have tides?](https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/202790/83380)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-22T05:49:32.100Z
Recently submitted paper on Titan's tidal currents: [Tidal Currents Detected in Kraken Mare Straits from Cassini VIMS Sun Glitter Observations](https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.00804)
William Miller
<saturn><titan><tidal-forces>
Does Saturn raise tides on Titan's lakes?
ChristieToWin
# Does Saturn raise tides on Titan's lakes?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-21)

Titan is the only body in the Solar System other than Earth to have large bodies of surface liquid. Since Saturn is much more massive than the Moon, I would expect for tides, if they're present to begin with, to be much larger than the ones here on Earth.

**Tags:** saturn, titan, tidal-forces

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: [Do the Great Lakes have tides?](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gltides.html) and [Why Lakes Don’t Have Tides?](https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/have-you-seen-tides-in-a-lake-really.html) and [There are no tides on the Great Lakes. Here’s why](https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/07/there-are-no-tides-on-the-great-lakes-heres-why.html) and [Are there lakes that have tides?](https://www.quora.com/Are-there-lakes-that-have-tides) and in Physics SE [Why don't lakes have tides?](https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/202790/83380)  
> **username_2**: Recently submitted paper on Titan's tidal currents: [Tidal Currents Detected in Kraken Mare Straits from Cassini VIMS Sun Glitter Observations](https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.00804)  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-10-17. Score: 3

I would like to add some more points.

Titan is indeed tidally locked to Saturn. Numerical calculation shows Titan's tides due to Saturn's gravity is *400 times* as strong as Moon's tidal effect on Earth. Saturn's gravitational pull on Titan varies as Titan orbits along an elliptical path around the planet every 16 days. As Titan nears the closest point in its orbit around Saturn (pericenter), it feels the maximum gravitational pull and at the farthest point in its orbit (apocenter), Titan feels the minimum gravitational pull. This varying pull causes bulges on Titan which is called solid "tides". Near the middle of Titan's orbit around Saturn (quadrature), there is still sufficient pull to cause a gravitational distortion, or deviation from a spherical shape. Tides on Titan raised by Saturn's gravity can be as high as 30 feet (10 meters). Titan is believed to have liquid water ocean beneath its surface. If it ever comes out of the surface, it will indeed experience tides.

Source:

1. [squeezing and stretching Titan](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/10746/squeezing-and-stretching-titan/)
2. [The Tides of Titan, Luciano Iess, Robert A. Jacobson, Marco Ducci, David J. Stevenson, username_4 I. Lunine, John W. Armstrong, Sami W. Asmar, Paolo Racioppa, Nicole J. Rappaport, Paolo Tortora, Science 27 Jul 2012:Vol. 337, Issue 6093, pp. 457-459, DOI](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/337/6093/457)


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### Answer by username_4 on 2020-06-22. Score: 3

Sort of... Titan is tidally locked to Saturn, so points the same side toward Saturn all the time. The tide caused by Saturn on Titan should be nearly unchanging, except that Titan has an elliptical orbit, and is at times closer. This cases a significant tidal effect, but it doesn't travel like on Earth. See [this article for more information.](https://astronomy.com/magazine/ask-astro/2018/05/the-tides-on-titan#:%7E:text=However%2C%20like%20most%20of%20the,satellites%20can%20still%20experience%20tides.)
This article states that this tide deforms Titan about 33 feet. I do not know how much the lakes themselves would change though.

The sun should also cause a very minor tide because it is further away.


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