tswiczko
Master Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2009
- Messages
- 838
Re: help with plot for mystery
Oceans are deep when away from the continental shelf where hydro thermal vents occur(average ocean depth is 12,000 feet +) any explosive tectonic event that would send ejecta at velocities sufficient to embed them in the hull of a boat would be detected by seismographs before the sand reached the surface. Currently there are about 40,000 miles of active spreading centers ( Mid ocean ridges MOR?s) throughout the oceans. These areas have very little to no sediment as the crust there is new and hasn?t had much time to build up sediment and there are a couple well documented spreading centers that are terrestrial like The Great rift Valley of Africa.
The seamount idea is plausible since they are projections of more than 1 kilometer high, and Guyots are flat topped seamounts that were probably high enough to break the surface of the water but have been eroded below the surface again by wave action they are mostly in the Pacific, if that is where you are writing about. Sea mounts and Island Arcs are usually formed around an underwater subduction zone (the Aleutian Islands are an island arc as well as to the north and west of the Hawaiian Islands is an island chain from the hot spot that formed the Hawaiian islands).
If you are looking for a medium as to how sand may become imbedded into a hull. I would go with hitting a sand bar.
If you are writing a scientific thriller then could I suggest the appearance of a coral reef that hasn?t been mapped yet because it is a new formation? ( but it wouldn?t be silica sand ) Although in actuality it takes a very long time to form reefs, and the planet is still at the end of a cool period which does not promote reef building activity, and CO2 levels aren?t high enough to support rapid growth and formation of reefs.
Given enough time climate change and rising greenhouse gas levels like CO2, which is a primary component of CaCO3(calcium carbonate) which is what corals and marine life builds their shells out of (except for Diatoms and Radiolarians which use SiO2 to form their shells) . Will bring the planet back to its normal warm state with an abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere and dissolved in the oceans to support the type of CaCO3 deposition our planet saw in the Phanerozoic and Cambrian periods.
best of luck with your endeavor
Oceans are deep when away from the continental shelf where hydro thermal vents occur(average ocean depth is 12,000 feet +) any explosive tectonic event that would send ejecta at velocities sufficient to embed them in the hull of a boat would be detected by seismographs before the sand reached the surface. Currently there are about 40,000 miles of active spreading centers ( Mid ocean ridges MOR?s) throughout the oceans. These areas have very little to no sediment as the crust there is new and hasn?t had much time to build up sediment and there are a couple well documented spreading centers that are terrestrial like The Great rift Valley of Africa.
The seamount idea is plausible since they are projections of more than 1 kilometer high, and Guyots are flat topped seamounts that were probably high enough to break the surface of the water but have been eroded below the surface again by wave action they are mostly in the Pacific, if that is where you are writing about. Sea mounts and Island Arcs are usually formed around an underwater subduction zone (the Aleutian Islands are an island arc as well as to the north and west of the Hawaiian Islands is an island chain from the hot spot that formed the Hawaiian islands).
If you are looking for a medium as to how sand may become imbedded into a hull. I would go with hitting a sand bar.
If you are writing a scientific thriller then could I suggest the appearance of a coral reef that hasn?t been mapped yet because it is a new formation? ( but it wouldn?t be silica sand ) Although in actuality it takes a very long time to form reefs, and the planet is still at the end of a cool period which does not promote reef building activity, and CO2 levels aren?t high enough to support rapid growth and formation of reefs.
Given enough time climate change and rising greenhouse gas levels like CO2, which is a primary component of CaCO3(calcium carbonate) which is what corals and marine life builds their shells out of (except for Diatoms and Radiolarians which use SiO2 to form their shells) . Will bring the planet back to its normal warm state with an abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere and dissolved in the oceans to support the type of CaCO3 deposition our planet saw in the Phanerozoic and Cambrian periods.
best of luck with your endeavor
