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TerranTechnocrat — Sinking World
#map #alienworld #alternateuniverse #fantasy #scififantasy #world
Published: 2018-05-29 19:00:10 +0000 UTC; Views: 5831; Favourites: 85; Downloads: 40
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Description
An old planet with life; in its current geological epoch, almost all of its continental plates have sunken down below the surface of its oceans, leaving behind scattered, isolated rocks that were once great mountaintops, and three defiant plates that still remain at least somewhat surfaced.The Lowlands- an expansive region of great plains and open prairie with some scattered coastal and montane temperate forests - it is the most widespread region on the Mainland. It is the home region of Sinking World's only sapient species and is inhabited by a number of agrarian cultures.
The Midlands- a mixed region of mountainous terrain and lush river-valleys, while Sinking's World only sapient species originated in the Lowlands, it does not rule from there. The Midlands is the home of a number of advanced industrial cultures, capable of extensive maritime exploration.
The Highlands- a region of labyrinthine foothills and low mountain ranges, the Highlands is home to a number of agrarian and hunter-gatherer warrior cultures that remain isolated from the rest of the Mainland. It is guarded against the rest of the continent by the 'Great Squid' - a mountain range named as such because, starting from its base in the Lowlands, when viewed from high above the world, it appears to be a great squid with protruding tentacles, and is spewing forth a great volume of ink.
The Hinterlands- A cluster of uninhabited islands, the wildlife of the Hinterlands is very alien to that of the Mainland, as it has been separated from life on the primary continent for somewhere around 200-400 million years without any contact. The Hinterlands is actually the highest point of a great submerged landmass, and its study by Mainlandic naturalists from a variety of universities is cause for great, almost continuous scientific breakthrough.
Old Nook- An extremely isolated, lush, intimidating tropical island, 'Old Nook' was first recorded by famous maritime explorer Cosrius the Brave but was discarded as a fable until a lost Imperial fleet - blown into the Great Expanse by a cyclone - returned to the Mainland with official documentation and specimens as evidence of the expedition. The sailors reported a jungle rich in truly otherworldly plants and animals and vast cyclopean ruins, forbiddingly ancient, made from an oily black stone - vast in scale, and overgrown with plant and animal life - left behind by an unimaginably ancient civilization; probably older than any mountain, older than the Mainland's native intelligence itself. A disturbing thought. As an old 'nook' or 'cranny' from an ancient, truly otherworldly landmass lost to the waves, multiple attempts after its rediscovery were made to rediscover Old Nook - only a handful of which has returned in success, while many of which haven't returned at all. This has led to a sailors' superstition that Old Nook actually rapidly shifts positions out in the Great Expanse by supernatural means.
The Great Expanse- the general name for the vast, unbroken expanse of saltwater surrounding the few refuges of terrestrial life left on Sinking World. Those unfortunate or foolhardy enough to venture out into the Expanse receive the title either 'the Brave' or 'the Foolish' depending on whether or not they simply return. The Great Expanse is not the realm for sailors and ships; it is the realm of ancient, colossal sea monsters - eons-old - vast sea serpents, giant squid, and other marine behemoths that eventually consume all that stray too far from the sight of land...
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This is a random map of an odd world I worked on for personal amusement; I actually started working on it back on 14 November 2017. I'll admit, in hindsight, this post looks pretty barren. I may work on fixing that.
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Comments: 12
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"Almost all of its continental plates have sunken down below the surface of its oceans..." Do things work like that?
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It could work like that i think on a planet around a smaller star with originally more water than earth. When the earth will cool down enough, the tectonic plates will all stop and the continents will slowly be eroded away. However, Earth is too dry and too close to her sun meaning that all the oceans will evaporate when the sun slowly transform into a red giant. If there are more water and the star is cooler, the oceans will stay and slowly as the planet become smoother and smoother, all land masses will sink and ocean trenches on the other hand will be filled up.
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Sorry, but I think your circumstances wouldn't work.
Some planetary scientists actually think Earth has too much water for optimum habitability, which makes sense given that 90% of the seafloor is largely barren as sunlight can't reach through its great depth. But not only due to that...
People often seem to characterize the evaporation on the oceans of any planet with similar or greater quality of water than Earth as gradual, even peaceful. That's probably not the case. At a planetary equilibrium temperature above 47 °C (116.6 °F), a runaway greenhouse effect starts, where more water vapor in the atmosphere will result in a stronger greenhouse effect, leading to higher temperature and thus more water... you see where this is going. A planet with a smaller hydrosphere could survive this process with some liquid water remaining, as the resulting temperature and pressure could be below the critical point, creating an environment similar to what Venus was thought to be like in a very short period in the 1960s.
The Earth or a planet with more water than it wouldn't be so "lucky"—it is thought that the temperature would be so high, carbonate rocks would become unstable and start decomposing into metal oxides and carbon dioxide, leading to even further warming. With the loss of water lubricating tectonic plate boundaries, plate tectonics would stop, thus convection, thus the magnetic field. The lack of a magnetic field, in addition to the extreme heat increasing the percentage of gas molecules moving faster than escape velocity, would result in most of the water being lost. With the loss of convection, volcanic activity would become more catastrophic, resulting in even further amounts of carbon dioxide and gases like sulfur dioxide entering the atmosphere. That sulfur dioxide would combine with the remaining water vapor in the atmosphere, creating sulfuric acid.
Sound familiar? Yep, that's exactly what Venus went through, anywhere from 3.5 to 1 billion years ago. In fact, if you tally up the nitrogen in the atmosphere with that sequestered in the oceans, and add to that the total mass of carbon dioxide sequestered in carbonate rocks, you get an atmosphere that is extremely similar to that of present-day Venus.
If a planet's tectonic plates stop due to a different process than Veneraformation, then that planet would probably similarly not remain habitable for much longer. Again, as plate tectonics is thought to be the agent of internal convection on Earth-like planets, this would result in a disruption of the magnetic field. The lack of a magnetic field would first put intense pressure on most life due to an increase in received radiation, then it would cause much of its atmosphere to be stripped away. More water evaporation would occur due to lower pressures, leading to even more water loss. Atmospheric loss would result in a reduction of the greenhouse effect and thus temperature—meaning the liquid and gas hydrospheres would effectively disappear as water freezes to ice caps or escapes the planet—as well as a further increase in radiation levels. Volcanic activity would become more catastrophic, though much less common than on either Earth or Venus.
Again, sound familiar? Yep, that's exactly what happened to Mars, between 3.5 and 2 billion years ago.
In conclusion, I think any potential trigger to the situation you describe would result in the planet simply becoming uninhabitable in a manner similar to that of Venus or Mars.
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Allright alright, taking what you've said into acount, i see though now a third scenario maybe. The planet could become an ice ball if it's too far from its star and wet as much. So yeah, i think you're right that such scenarios could never happen. It's a shame cause it makes of a cool setting.
I wish for some precisions however :
The star has no effect on triggering this event ? Is the plate tectonic the only factor to cause or prevent such a feedback loop?
Isn't a more massive than mars planet capable to retain water ? Are we sure that tectonic plates is the only thing to cause magnetic fields ? What about iron core ?
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Yes, the star has an effect—the further the habitable planet is from its star, the later it will experience a runaway greenhouse effect. But the planet's water content is mostly what determines how the runaway greenhouse process occurs.
A planet more massive than Mars would be able to retain a significant portion of its water. Depending on what you define as "significant", Mars did as well (total water mass is comparable to the Antarctic ice cap). But virtually all of it is frozen, as water vapor pressures are very low at its current temperature and total atmospheric pressure is such that liquid water outside of brines is impossible on half its surface (literally—Mars's "sea level" is defined as the pressure altitude of the triple point of water) and can exist only at a very slim temperature range on the other half.
A liquid iron core is a factor in a strong planetary magnetic field. However, it would be very odd if Venus didn't have one, and it does not have a significant magnetic field. There is strong evidence that Mercury, Io, and even the Moon have liquid iron cores, so it would also be unusual if Mars didn't have one, though we'll have to wait for InSight to confirm. Only one of those LIC (Liquid Iron Core) worlds, however, has a magnetic field of any significance (Mercury). So, obviously, there must be another factor.
Mercury's magnetic field is only 1% as strong as Earth's (which could be attributed to its slow rotation rate) and combined with its sunward location means it is rarely enough to produce a protective bubble around the planet. It could operate without plate tectonics, using another form of internal convection, though IIRC MESSENGER has identified possible recent features associated with tectonic plates. However, this would mean that in some circumstances plate tectonics does not require water lubrication.
Ganymede also has a weak but significant magnetic field, though it hardly shields from Jupiter's brutality. A theory is that it is produced by internal convection not of iron, but of salts in its subsurface ocean. It's highly unlikely that a terrestrial planet could have anything like that, though.
There could be other methods for producing a strong planetary magnetic field on a terrestrial planet, but I really don't know about those. You'll have to see a planetary geologist for that.
Theoretically, there could be a "supercalm" star that produces very little solar wind and ionizing radiation, meaning a planet could stay reasonably habitable for a long time after a magnetic field failure. I'm not sure if such stars exist, though, and there'd still be background radiation from cosmic rays.
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A more accurate phrase would be "tectonic plate", but, to my limited knowledge, on Earth, tectonic plates have - with hundreds of millions of years - sank below the waterline of the ocean through subduction and probably a number of other factors at times.
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Whenever there is subduction there is rifting and mantle plumes, and the amount of water on Earth does not significantly change. A reduction of relief could result in the overall reduction of land area, but I doubt that is happening, because rifting, mantle plumes, and plate collision continuously creates new mountains and subduction creates new trenches. I'm not a geologist, though.
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Okay, so let's say this world is frequented by comets. Over time, the amount of water on this planet changes *quite* significantly.
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I don't see how this is relevant, especially in regards to a fantasy world. But okay.
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looks, blue... perhaps add some blue gradients to show height variations in the ocean floor to ad a little bit more detail but other then that it looks genuinly interesting, gotta love the simplistic style.
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I appreciate the advice! ^^
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