Celestia Forums

If a planet is in a situation where it would be rapidly tidally-locked (e.g. close orbit around an M-dwarf or a moon of a gas giant), would structures such as Pangaea-style supercontinents or something like the Tharsis bulge (i.e. something quite large with respect to the planet) affect the orientation of the planet, and if so, would the supercontinent or bulge end up at the poles or at the equator?

The longest axis of a body usually ends up pointing towards the primary (or more accurately, to the empty focus of the elliptical orbit).