41–50 of 64 posts
Something like this kind of drew me into geology. The inside jacket of my intro textbook explained the Mediterranean used to be damned naturally at Gibraltar or whatever the inlet is called and that so much salt water evaporated there where miles deep salt land features. Was instantly hooked
With rising sea levels perhaps it might be an option to keep the levels in the mediterranen? Seems at least more feasible than the Norther European Enclosure Dam* *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_European_Enclosure_Da...
Since parts of Northern Europe still experiences Post-glacial rebound and will rise faster than the expected rise of the ocean level I find this project unnecessary. (I am still a sucker for megaprojects though)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound#Vertical_...:
“the post-glacial rebound of northern Great Britain (up to 10 cm per century) is causing a corresponding downward movement of the southern half of the island (up to 5 cm per century)”
IIRC, the Low Countries also are sinking because of post-glacial rebound.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn‘t that take forever to fill up?
Approximately 100 years. Then it would produce 2 PWh of power (300x average nuclear power plant). Volume 160x Three Gorges Dam. More here: https://prehrada.hrach.eu/en.html
Someone with more engineering sense than I can debunk this: The Baltic is dramatically less saline than the Atlantic. That's why the Vasa [1] was so well-preserved after 300 years at the bottom. So could we not take advantage of that salinity difference, somehow? [1] https://www.vasamuseet.se/en Edit: Every engineering student sees the movie of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsing. To me, the Vasa is a much better ca…
The Mediterranean sea is, to me, the most beautiful place on earth. Be it mainland Spain (with, sadly, way too many concrete all along the coast), France, Italy, Croatia, Greece, ... It's just beautiful. Then the islands: Corsica, Sicily, Ibiza, Formentera, ... It's heaven on earth. I drive my kid to school on the french riviera, along the coast and among the vineyards every day. Famous poets and painters would go an…
Someone with more engineering sense than I can debunk this: The Baltic is dramatically less saline than the Atlantic. That's why the Vasa [1] was so well-preserved after 300 years at the bottom. So could we not take advantage of that salinity difference, somehow? [1] https://www.vasamuseet.se/en Edit: Every engineering student sees the movie of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsing. To me, the Vasa is a much better ca…
[1] https://www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/zakelijk/duurzame-leefomgevin...
I get a feeling that the author may have a teeny-weeny ideological axe to grind. A large underwater turbine with totally predictable generation cycle might indeed be a useful thing for Europe and north Africa.
Hah. Not at all! If it sounds like that, I've misrepresented myself - I agree with you here, and the Strait is the perfect place to do it, using something like this: https://www.orkney.com/news/orbital-grid
> But - purely as an exercise in trying to answer hilariously daft questions - how much would it cost to lower the level of the sea?
Never answered?
> But this is far from the worst thing about Atlantropa.
> It’s alarming to look back just a century and realise just how deeply baked and widely-disseminated these kinds of racist assumptions were in Europe.
> It’s proper shivers-down-the-spine stuff.
> Atlantropa may have been wildly unfeasible for countless reasons, a perfect turducken of Nopes.
Which reasons?
I got to the end of the post and was still waiting for content...
Smaller scale project - Czech dam (the red lines are dams): https://www.abclinuxu.cz/images/screenshots/7/3/242837-ceska...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Approximately 100 years. Then it would produce 2 PWh of power (300x average nuclear power plant). Volume 160x Three Gorges Dam. More here: https://prehrada.hrach.eu/en.html
If it takes 100 years to fill the dam and emptying the dam will generate 2PWh, then the expected average power is 2.3GW. That's closer to 3 nuclear reactors.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hah. Not at all! If it sounds like that, I've misrepresented myself - I agree with you here, and the Strait is the perfect place to do it, using something like this: https://www.orkney.com/news/orbital-grid
It definitely sounds like that. > But - purely as an exercise in trying to answer hilariously daft questions - how much would it cost to lower the level of the sea? Never answered? > But this is far from the worst thing about Atlantropa. > It’s alarming to look back just a century and realise just how deeply baked and widely-disseminated these kinds of racist assumptions were in Europe. > It’s proper shivers-down-the…
The article notes that even just the dam in the Gibraltar Strait (ignoring the others) would have required more concrete than existed in the entire world at the time. I think that single reason is enough.