Talk:Tidal heating

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First of all I think where it says The total amount of tidal heating is given by.... it should say the amount of tidal heating per surface unit per second because if you derive the units for qtidal they are watt/m^2.

Also can you show how someone can derive this equation?

--G123106 (talk) 16:09, 5 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Tidal Dissipation Number (Q) for Solar System Objects (plus notes and analysis)[edit]

Measures the efficiency of a planetary body at converting tidal potential into heat.

  • Earth: 280 (12, 280)
  • Moon: 30±9 (38, 21)
  • Mars: 100
  • Jupiter: 49000
  • Io: 100 (a realistic approximation for rocky planets under strong tidal stresses)
  • Saturn: 2500 (2500, 317)


  • Terrestrial planets and their satellites: 10-500, 10-190
  • Gas giants: purportedly in excess of 60000. inconsistent with Q values i found for Jupiter and Saturn.
  • Stars: 4,000,000 for smaller ones, upwards of 20,000,000 for larger ones.

With melt migration as the dominant heat transport mechanism, Q higher than 1000 is possible for planets with thin asthenospheres at short periods or very high eccentricities.


Tidal dissipation numbers are virtually absent from the literature and otherwise inconsistent.

SnailsAttack (talk) 12:49, 1 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]