Timeline for Can we live off hydrothermal vents?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jul 29, 2021 at 20:32 | vote | accept | The Square-Cube Law | ||
| Dec 18, 2020 at 7:19 | answer | added | PcMan | timeline score: 2 | |
| Dec 18, 2020 at 4:25 | history | edited | The Square-Cube Law | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Dec 18, 2020 at 3:25 | answer | added | PlanMan1717 | timeline score: 1 | |
| Dec 17, 2020 at 18:40 | comment | added | The Square-Cube Law | @John I think you're right - Rainbow could probably feed no more than 9 people, and that's being optimistic :( | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 23:07 | comment | added | Slarty | Do we have data concerning how much of the Earth's core is contributing to surface warming? Very little. But soil and rock are not good conductors of heat and the temperature increases by roughly 25-30 degrees C per km you go down and that's away from active plate boundaries. Extensive amounts of water would probably continue to exist for a great deal of time. | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 22:32 | comment | added | JBH | @jdunlop OK! That's interesting. I could wish to see the professor's math. I get the fact that without an atmosphere to absorb and more efficiently transfer heat to space it would take longer... but something about the argument is gnawing at me. If it's a claim for every ounce of surface water to become frozen, maybe. But something about it feels wrong to me. Oh, well, it's likely me. | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 22:19 | comment | added | jdunlop | @JBH - at least according to this article (popsci.com/science/article/2013-07/…) - "hundreds of thousands" is explicitly stated. | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 22:02 | comment | added | John | note hydrpther,mal vents take up very small areas, so while they may be more productive pr sq meter but there are far less square meters. | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 21:58 | comment | added | JBH | Maybe... but do we have data concerning how much of the Earth's core is contributing to surface warming? It's winter outside my home right now, so the answer is pretty much "none." I'll concede the argument, but I don't believe hundreds-of-thousands. I don't believe hundreds. Heat rises. If it's not enough to keep the surface ice-free, it's not enough to keep the sea floor ice free, either. But, either way, iced-over the ocean still loses both the carbon and the oxygen cycles. It's just a gentler problem. | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 21:54 | comment | added | The Square-Cube Law | @JBH I think if the Earth gets ejected off the solar system, the surface of the planet will become ice in a few years (or maybe months), but the oceans might still be liquid for hundreds of thousands of years. In that time humanity could adapt to tap on the ocean floor for resources. | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 21:54 | comment | added | JBH | ...What if life found a way to adapt quickly such that the carbon and oxygen cycles could be preserved? Ignoring the fact that getting to these vents would be quite a challenge, what plants and critters could survive in such pockets? Might end up being too speculative... but it'll be interesting to see what people come up with. Certainly divergent evolution (although that requires lots of time). | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 21:52 | comment | added | JBH | I'll be interested to see the answers to this question, it's a lot more complex than it seems. As a rouge planet, the ability to keep the entirety of the oceans unfrozen will be impossible. That means the hydrothermal vents are warming pockets of liquid entrapped in ice. That liquid will lack all kinds of usually necessary things, and I suspect both the oxygen and the carbon cycles will be very compromised (especially since the vents are venting, among other things, sulfur). It's more believable that everything would die and the areas become sterile... but... (*continued*) | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 21:29 | history | edited | The Square-Cube Law | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Dec 7, 2020 at 21:28 | comment | added | The Square-Cube Law | @Pitto you're right - I'll edit the question. | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 21:24 | comment | added | Pitto | I should point out that hydroponic farms wouldn't solve a lack of sunlight, as hydroponics is just a way to grow plants without soil. You'd need an artificial light source, like grow lights (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grow_light). | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 21:11 | history | asked | The Square-Cube Law | CC BY-SA 4.0 |