Timeline for How can you build cities without cement?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 19, 2017 at 10:20 | comment | added | pHred | Dude, talk to a geologist. You can have fossil sand dunes, fossil seabeds and fossil riverbeds. I ran a research vessel program for a number of years and we had teams of world leading scientists investigating all of these and more. | |
| Feb 19, 2017 at 9:23 | comment | added | jmbpiano | @pHred The word "fossil" is defined as "the remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mold or cast in rock". You literally cannot have a "fossil" sea bed in the absence of life. Calcium-rich sea beds, sure, but not "fossil". | |
| Feb 16, 2017 at 11:39 | comment | added | pHred | @Luuan Yep. Cracking CO2 also a useful source of oxygen. | |
| Feb 16, 2017 at 11:32 | comment | added | Luaan | You probably don't need carbon from meteorites - it's nothing rare even on Earth, where most of it is stolen by life. On a non-living planet, you'd have a basically inexhaustible supply in the atmosphere (assuming it wasn't lost over time as on Mars, of course) and in various geothermal deposits. Hydrogen is plentiful if you have water deposits - on a water/ice-less world, it might be a bit more of a problem. And the reducing (and possibly dry) atmosphere might make it trivial to build long-lasting buildings from materials that aren't usually considered particularly desirable on Earth. | |
| Feb 16, 2017 at 10:59 | comment | added | pHred | ... calcium & etc. Continents move, weather patterns change, seas dry out, voila, fossil sea beds. No life required. Also note that most of the water on earth comes from crustal rocks. | |
| Feb 16, 2017 at 10:24 | comment | added | pHred | Seas are the result of large bodies of water. Life is not required. The water dissolves inorganic minerals from rocks. Sodium, chlorine | |
| Feb 16, 2017 at 10:21 | comment | added | Lorry Laurence mcLarry | why would there be "fossil seabeds" on a lifeless planet? | |
| Feb 16, 2017 at 10:05 | history | answered | pHred | CC BY-SA 3.0 |