World Building - Oceanography, anyone ?
- Thread starter rust
- Start date
Ishmael said:
Indeed, this would of course be possible, and it is a very interesting idea
- thank you for it !
There are enough ridges and seamounts on my planet to make this work,
I think. And as a result the planet would be a true water world only be-
tween the ice ages caused by the variability of its sun, which would give
the planet a far more interesting history - and would open up some even
more fascinating opportunities, for example concerning the biosphere du-
ring the ice ages.
Yes, I really like this idea - thank you very much !
There is a very good article in New Scientist magazine from a couple of weeks ago. Talks about the hot-house earth in the Eocene (around 50 to 100 million years ago) which was mostly water. The Eocene was pretty much between ice ages. There is some interesting stuff on a freshwater arctic ocean and massive hurricanes that could give you ideas.
link to opening paragraph
I'd pm you the full article, but I cannot remember my login.
link to opening paragraph
I'd pm you the full article, but I cannot remember my login.
Thank you very much for the info and the link !
It is not difficult to get a copy of a New Scientist article over here, so
I will be able to read it very soon.
Edit.:
The more I read about the subject, the more interesting it becomes.
It seems that I cannot only have a number of ice ages with changing
sea levels, I can also have a mass extinction event destroying most of
the previous biospheres of my planet with each major climate change
- and still undiscovered survivors of such extinction events in the deep
sea trenches, as well as ruins of previous (alien) outposts in far more
places than I had imagined ...
Hey, this planet is getting a lot of history, and some of it can make a
most fascinating background for new adventures ! 8)
It is not difficult to get a copy of a New Scientist article over here, so
I will be able to read it very soon.
Edit.:
The more I read about the subject, the more interesting it becomes.
It seems that I cannot only have a number of ice ages with changing
sea levels, I can also have a mass extinction event destroying most of
the previous biospheres of my planet with each major climate change
- and still undiscovered survivors of such extinction events in the deep
sea trenches, as well as ruins of previous (alien) outposts in far more
places than I had imagined ...
Hey, this planet is getting a lot of history, and some of it can make a
most fascinating background for new adventures ! 8)
Thunderbolt
Mongoose
Some other thoughts about your world.
Unless you envisage a relatively stable crust, you could expect to see lots of activity around subduction zones with undersea volcanism building up undersea mountains that may even poke above the waves from time to time. The thermal vents around plate edges would be teeming with exotic life and might be potential power sources.
Wave energy might give rise to large floating generators or you might consider giant floating heat pumps exploiting the thermocline between the cold depths and warmer surface - both of which would be navigation hazards.
Would the absence of land encourage space craft to become truly amphibious so to avoid extortionate landing fees at the few floating structures?
Unless you envisage a relatively stable crust, you could expect to see lots of activity around subduction zones with undersea volcanism building up undersea mountains that may even poke above the waves from time to time. The thermal vents around plate edges would be teeming with exotic life and might be potential power sources.
Wave energy might give rise to large floating generators or you might consider giant floating heat pumps exploiting the thermocline between the cold depths and warmer surface - both of which would be navigation hazards.
Would the absence of land encourage space craft to become truly amphibious so to avoid extortionate landing fees at the few floating structures?
Thunderbolt said:
You are right, Pharos IV has indeed a lot of volcanic activity, but until now
the colonists have not dared to use volcanism for the production of geo-
thermal energy. However, after using fusion reactors only during the first
years of the colony, they have now built the first (prototype) power plants
to produce energy from waves or ocean currents - far from the active
volcanoes, after some unfortunate experiences with them.
What remained of the native life after the supernova event, and is bigger
than plankton, really lives in or near the deep sea trenches and their hy-
drothermal vents, although there are also some few sea cucumber-like
creatures living on the deep sea mud flats away from the trenches.
The two small starships and the various shuttles and small craft of the
colony all have "aquafitting" and can land ... eh, water ? ... on the sea
without problems.
Some of the free trader ships that visit Pharos IV regularly meanwhile
also have aquafitting,
Other smaller ships, up to a length of 50 meters, can land on the lan-
ding floater of the colony's downport, at least during calm weather and
with a pilot who trained a landing on a moving platform for some hours
in a simulator. If there is no such pilot on board, the starport control
usually sends one of their pilots up to the ship.
Bigger ships, and those who do not wish to land on the floater, transfer
passengers and cargo in orbit. This was quite a difficult task in the ear-
ly years of the colony, but meanwhile the colonists have built a small
orbital highport.
By the way, there are no landing fees on Pharos IV, and even the fuel is
free. The colony's council wants to attract traders to the system's remo-
te location, and therefore the entire starport operation (which is not ve-
ry much) is paid from taxes.
Thank you very much for your questions.
