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I have 4 geographic peculiarities to take into account that could influence the climate :

  1. The island is surrounded by a chain of mountains(oceanic ridges) that can protect the coastline from hurricanes.

  2. The submerged part of the mountains is full of galleries and cavern letting the seawater circulate

  3. From the southern part to the center, half of the island is a 3km high plateau that end with cliff at the center of the island.

  4. The longitude is -67,4005243 and latitude is -60,64088

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  • $\begingroup$ You want an hard science answer, but there is no way to answer this question, even on a more loose science based approach, without a lot more details. Climate is non linear system, where 2+2 doesn't always make 4 $\endgroup$
    – L.Dutch
    Jan 18 at 4:07
  • $\begingroup$ Given the range of climates on Madagascar what makes you think that there would be a singular answer to this question? $\endgroup$
    – sphennings
    Jan 18 at 4:18
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    $\begingroup$ Six times the size, how? In latitude, in longitude, in surface? How tall are the mountains? How is the surface covered? Where it is exactly located? What is there around it? $\endgroup$
    – L.Dutch
    Jan 18 at 4:31
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    $\begingroup$ I'm no climatologist, but I judge this question impossible to answer unless one is a climatologist, and I'd bet a milkshake they can't do it, either. The normal weather around Cape Horn is stormy and cold. But you just dropped an island that's almost the entire size of the Drake Passage to block the passage. That would have ENORMOUS consequences, not just for the island's climate, but for South America, Antarctica, and a lot of other places (you just screwed up the Antarctic Circumpolar Current). People could get their PhDs answering a question like this. I think you're beyond our scope. $\endgroup$
    – JBH
    Jan 18 at 7:04
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    $\begingroup$ A land mass six times the latitude span and six times the longitude span as Madagascar would cover 21,340,800 square kilometers -- larger than Greenland, larger than Australia, larger than Europe, and nearly as large as Africa. There are not that many places on Earth where you could even put such a thing. $\endgroup$ Jan 18 at 9:15

2 Answers 2

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LATITUDE: The most obvious and simple influence on climate is latitude. At the 60th parallel south, you could expect freezing temperatures every day May-Sept, and some days almost every month. Here is climate data for other islands at that latitude.

ALTITUDE: "From the southern part to the center, half of the island is a 3km high plateau that end with cliff at the center of the island" – This plateau is certainly going to be a very harsh place. The effects of that altitude alone are going to lower temperatures 18-21°C from baseline, so it'll typically be -20° to -10°C. There are places where people live happy lives in that sort of cold. (Llama can also survive at such temperatures.)

EFFECT OF THE CLIFF ON PRECIPITATION: "From the southern part to the center, half of the island is a 3km high plateau that end with cliff at the center of the island" – as northerly sea winds hit the cliff and are forced upwards, they will drop their moisture, creating a wet and fertile area to the south of the cliff. This may not be the population centre (that will probably be the coast), but it may be a green plain good for llama/alpaca/vicuña pastoralism. Rainfed rivers could flow from this plain to the coast, with your population centres on the mouths of the rivers. The high plateau will be arid.

EFFECTS OF LANDMASS: Seasonal fluctuations in this central plain will be greater than at the coasts.

GLOBAL EFFECTS: The Drake passage is a key place to the global climate. This island (arguably really a continent) would block thermohaline circulation. Now you could arguably handwave pass that, especially as you said seawater flows under/through the island, and it would greatly complicates your plot, but your science is getting softer if you do.

FRAME CHALLENGE: On your first numbered point: there are no hurricanes in that area to begin with.


I also agree with others that it's impossible to answer this question in full hardness. The effects on the flow of wind and water will be enormous, and can't be computed without significant well-funded research.

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  • $\begingroup$ "Here is climate data for other islands at that latitude:" What data? The presence of a large continent extending over 90 degrees of latitude and 40 degrees of longitude would alter the global climate beyond recognition. The continent extends north-south about as much as South America, and east-west about as much as Europe. As a zeroth order consequence, the Antarctic circumpolar wind vortex and the corresponding ocean current will no longer exist. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Jan 18 at 15:41
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A land mass six times the latitude span and six times the longitude span as Madagascar would cover 21,340,800 square kilometers -- larger than Greenland, larger than Australia, larger than Europe, and nearly as large as Africa. There are not that many places on Earth where you could even put such a thing.

Not only is it impossible to predict the climate of such a place, it is impossible to predict what the climate would be anywhere on the planet after adding a new continent of that size.

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  • $\begingroup$ "six times the size" presumably means six times the area, not 36 times the area $\endgroup$
    – wokopa
    Jan 18 at 14:54
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    $\begingroup$ @wokopa: Querent explicitly says "...six time the size of Madagascar in longitude and latitude...". $\endgroup$ Jan 18 at 15:14
  • $\begingroup$ Depends if you take it to mean "six time the size of Madagascar in longitude and latitude, near the west of the Drake passage" or "six time the size of Madagascar, in longitude and latitude near the west of the Drake passage" $\endgroup$
    – wokopa
    Jan 18 at 15:16
  • $\begingroup$ @wokopa: Six times the area of Madagascar is about 3.5 million sq KM, not as big as six times the length but still larger than Greenland and about half the size of Australia. I would not fit where querent wants it, at lat -60 lon -67. Even anywhere close to that, it would be mostly in the Drake passage, and would stop the Antarctic circumpolar dead. You don't need a LGP-30 to picture the ensuing chaos. $\endgroup$ Jan 19 at 19:10
  • $\begingroup$ You said "would stop the Antarctic circumpolar dead" – the questioner said "The submerged part of the mountains is full of galleries and cavern letting the seawater circulate" $\endgroup$
    – wokopa
    Jan 19 at 23:22

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