AKICIF: Heavy Water?

[jeriendhal]

I'm sure Hal Clement covered this ground already in Mission of Gravity but I'm blanking at the moment...

So what are the likely effects on oceans and rivers, assuming an Earthlike world with perhaps 1.5 gravity? I'm assuming the waterfalls would be even more spectacular, but would rivers flow faster, tides be more or less extreme (assuming a Moon sized moon) and so on?

Comments

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

With higher gravity, hills and mountains would likely be shorter (note the inverse is proven by Mons Olympus on Mars), which would itself have an impact on rivers, waterfalls, and the like (as a high-gravity planet would be flatter than Earth, I'd expect waterfalls to be less, not more, spectacular). I'm not sure overall if rivers would flow faster or slower; that would depend on a variety of factors apart from gravity (after all, rivers on Earth do not flow at uniform speeds). Your hypothetical planet would likely have some variance in river speeds as well; so if one were to feature in your story, it could run at whatever speed (within reason) the plot demanded.

As for tides -- both the Earth and the moon experience them, as they mutually attract each other with a gravitational force equal to the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance between them (IIRC; this is from memory). Off the top of my head, the satellite of this hypothetical planet might be further away from it than the Earth is from the Moon to keep from spiraling in on a collision course, but that's a wild-ass guess. In any event, there are other factors at play in the size of the tides, including the size (and depth) of the oceans. I'm not sure how to answer this one.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Less land mass, I should think, and a weaker magnetic field since more of the core would have deposited sooner.

There would be fewer waterfalls, since the disjunction would be eaten away faster, but a lot more gorges. Shallower than here-- no Colorado Canyons-- but numerous and broad.

Weaker storms, since atmospheric pressure would drop off quicker with altitude.

That's all I gots right now.

[estokien.livejournal.com]

If the moon is the same mass as Earth's moon, it would either need to be farther away which would make tides smaller, or have a higher orbital velocity, which would make them more rapid. The extra gravity of the planet would have a dampening effect on waves and such, everything is pulled tighter, increasing friction effects. Waterfalls would probably have deeper basins for their height from higher velocity impacts. Most rivers probably wouldn't have much speed impact, as the vertical component of their movement is small, though mountain streams would probably rush more.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

Waves would travel faster, so seashore erosion might be stronger, but I don't know how visible the difference would be. Might have a bigger effect on the local wildlife - i suspect they'd be much less athletic, from the risk of broken bones. Kangaroo type anatomy would probably do quite well though