Questions tagged [geology]
For questions about rocks, minerals and the physical structure and substance of the world.
359
questions
2
votes
1answer
35 views
How to tackle one or multiple submerged continents
A part of the story i am writing involves two continents that centuries before the story takes place sunk into the sea.
I want to have a way to explain this that does not come down to just the sea ...
3
votes
1answer
75 views
How to form a huge natural plateau with a slope?
I need a huge natural plateau to form but with a slope. There can be some variation, a few hills or even mountains here and there, but the ground needs to be mostly gently sloping north to south.
It ...
2
votes
3answers
176 views
What Animals Could Live in a Glass Ocean?
So I had this idea of a world with an ocean sized pool of super hard glass that formed millions of years ago on this planet.
I started to think of the implications of something like that: In some ...
3
votes
3answers
162 views
Does or could a collection of regions like this exist on Earth?
I initially assumed my world was going to be pure fantasy, but the more I think about it, the more I consider having the story take place somewhere on Earth, either as alternate history or the far ...
8
votes
2answers
70 views
Plausibility check: heat emission from extinct volcanoes
There's an important aspect of my headworld involving volcanoes which I planned many years ago. Recently I revisited this concept to refine it further, only to run into a few questions that I've been ...
6
votes
4answers
2k views
How big would the ice ball have to be to deliver all the water at once?
One popular theory to explain how Earth got its water is that it was delivered by asteroid/comet/etc. The form this theory usually takes is that many small impacts occured over a long time, each ...
4
votes
6answers
150 views
Giant, Periodic Geysers?
My world has giant geysers. The height of these geysers oscillates over a cycle of 3 or so days.
Things you need to know:
1. There is an unknown force in the core of the planet, which exerts ...
3
votes
3answers
147 views
Would an exoplanet highly rich in Iron (and other metallic properties) have any effects on technology?
Im working on a story about a new exoplanet discovery and its subsequent "Near Future" colonization.
The planet is close to its parent star. As such, I have decided to give it a sizeable molten iron ...
8
votes
3answers
232 views
How Can I Explain a Giant Equatorial Gash?
I have a moon in my story that has a thin, deep gash or canyon that lies on its equator and spans the entire moon.
My original idea involved the sudden orbital decay of a ring system, caused by a ...
24
votes
5answers
3k views
How To Make Earth's Oceans as Brackish as Lyr's
Allow me to present Lyr, one of a handful of worlds crafted by artist Chris Wayan:
The one detail among a vast many that is important to this question is that its salinity is about 1.5%, roughly half ...
1
vote
0answers
98 views
How would a slip-strike fault develop in my terrain?
I am designing a fictitious continent, and as part of this I am also designing the prehistoric development of the continent up to the present day.
A particular tricky part of this has been that, in ...
7
votes
2answers
133 views
What geological processes could form the Crystal Desert on the planet Thra in the Dark Crystal?
The Crystal Desert is a Sahara-like expanse of sand, dotted with numerous large clusters of crystal, and containing numerous monolithic sandstones. What would we expect Thra geologists to determine ...
6
votes
2answers
126 views
Longest “linear” natural formations
In an effort to gain inspiration for planetary formation and, at the same time, inspiration for governmental/territorial boundaries between residents of said formed planets, I've recently encountered ...
3
votes
3answers
117 views
what would be needed for a sword that glows? [duplicate]
how would it be possible for a sword that glows a very dim light at all times. What materials would be needed to do this? would this hamper the effectiveness of the blade?
6
votes
4answers
136 views
Identifying minerals without sight
Properly ventilating a deep mine is a significant engineering challenge. Ergo, you don't want to be carrying around torches that use up some of your precious breathing oxygen if you don't absolutely ...
14
votes
4answers
395 views
How deep could dwarves actually delve?
Given an arbitrarily long time to do so, what is the maximum depth too which a dwarven civilization could practically extend their mines / cities? And what would be the final limiting factor ...
5
votes
2answers
159 views
Appropriate Material for a Red Moon
I have some ideas regarding this, but thought I would check to see what you guys can come up with, as I found some of the ideas here often trump mine in originality and/or plausibility.
So, I have a ...
9
votes
4answers
199 views
Moving mountains
In our world, mountains generally only move up (while forming) or down (while eroding or sinking). Otherwise they follow the tectonic plates they happen to be on. In island chains like the Hawaiian ...
3
votes
3answers
169 views
Plausibility of (large) continents on a world with hundreds of tectonic plates
Suppose an earth-like world with roughly 500 major tectonic plates.
Question
What is the plausibility of such a world to sustain (large) continents? Why?
Further clarifications:
speed of plates: ...
5
votes
4answers
209 views
Connecting Biomes
I'm in some urgent need of advice about linking together biomes in a realistic manner. Can a taiga connect to an alpine tundra to the north, and a steppe to the south? Then what would branch off of ...
3
votes
3answers
107 views
What would be the chemical composition of the crust and core of a planet comprised primarily of diamond?
I’m creating a world for a webcomic and I’m running into some difficulties – namely, my own limitations. I’m not a scientist, and I don’t even know how to start asking the questions I want answered. ...
7
votes
1answer
124 views
How much surface water do I need for plate-tectonics on a planet?
I want to build a habitable desert gas-giant moon and I´m not sure how little water I can give it and still get plate-tectonics instead of an Io-like lid-tectonic setup. I want plate tectonics because ...
6
votes
1answer
165 views
What's wrong (if anything) with the tectonic plates on my fictional planet?
I'm trying to find someone (s) with enough geology knowledge to help me figure out some of the specifics of the world I'm building. (Earth-like in age, distance from star, size, tilt) I'm doing my ...
6
votes
2answers
200 views
If Earth's Oceans Were as Deep as Europa's
Earth's deepest point, the Challenger Deep, is almost seven miles below sea level. By contrast, Europa is smaller than even Earth's moon, yet its oceans are anywhere between 40-100 miles deep! So the ...
8
votes
3answers
188 views
Catastrophic geology
What would happen to an earth-like planet where an event caused a large (think, the size of the Caribbean tectonic plate) section of the crust to get peeled away, exposing the upper mantle for a ...
7
votes
5answers
193 views
Is it possible to have naturally occurring deposits of diamond on a volcanic island chain?
The People of The Shining Isles have long been exploited. They are cruelly used in mines, excavating tonne after tonne of rock and dirt in pursuit of what the Warriors from Away call ‘diamonds’. These ...
14
votes
2answers
491 views
Where do I put diamond mines on my map?
I've got a home-brewed D&D setting. Diamonds, in D&D, are needed for resurrection magic, so access to diamonds is literally life and death for any country with clerics capable of casting such ...
14
votes
1answer
814 views
Geological aftereffects of an asteroid impact on a large mountain range?
For the sake of analogy, let's take the Chixclub impactor and move it a mountain range akin to the modern Himalayas. Obviously we're dealing with an extinction level event here so I'm not concerned ...
4
votes
4answers
172 views
Is it possible to create a realistic habitable planet/moon with actually alien landscape? [closed]
There is a standard challenge while creating landscape for habitable planet, as it should be both:
physically realistic (so presumably like Earth)
alien (so presumably not like Earth)
Standard, ...
9
votes
4answers
824 views
Is a reptile with diamond scales possible?
I thought of a concept for a dragon or similarly gigantic reptile with a special adaptation, in which they’re born with scales made almost entirely of carbon. Then, over an incredibly long life cycle, ...
4
votes
2answers
226 views
How Would Plate Tectonics on an Inverted World Work?
Recently, I came across an inverted world map on the MapPorn Reddit made by MChainsaw. "Inverted" as in, the "continents" are now below sea level and the "ocean floors" are high and dry. (...
3
votes
2answers
162 views
Would an deep sea lava river be feasible?
I don't wanna reveal too much about my world, however, the basic idea is that there is a town of people who live deep underwater (they are biologically capable of doing underwater gas exchange and ...
3
votes
2answers
385 views
Would It Be Feasible to Hollow Mount Everest Into a Palace?
Let's say that some Oriental emperor had decreed that he should move his palatial residence from China to Everest. Specifically, he wanted Mount Everest to be his palace, which means hollowing the ...
13
votes
4answers
357 views
Can a liquid sand ocean exist naturally?
I'm talking about this sort of liquid sand:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My4RA5I0FKs
"Desert-as-sea-analog" is present in many media, but often they lean heavily into fantasy, and it seems not ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Can rocky hills similar to the Scottish highlands be located next to a bog?
I've written about these rocky hills with short grass, gravel, shrubs, and big boulders. At the bottom of one of the hills is a big bog. Basically I've designed some buildings to be sticking out of ...
20
votes
2answers
4k views
A hang glider, sudden unexpected lift to 25,000 feet altitude, what could do this?
This is the third in a series of 5 (at this point) questions. It's not relevant to this question, but for anyone who's curious this was the first, this the second.
Conditions for this question are:
...
8
votes
3answers
292 views
Giant rock spikes sticking out of the ground
Would it be possible for huge, hundreds-of-metres-long spikes of rock, ideally slanting at an angle, to arise under natural processes?
For clarity, I mean like this:
Copyright Joe Jesus
There are ...
8
votes
2answers
144 views
What geological and chemical changes to the earth's makeup could effectively limit technological advancement
Basically, I want to freeze the technology of earth at a level reminiscent of pre-Industrial Revolution Europe. I'm trying to figure out what substance or material would have to be absent from the ...
8
votes
3answers
211 views
How to calculate the thickness of the ice-layer of a frozen ocean planet/moon?
How do I calculate the thickness of the upper ice layer on cold ocean worlds like Europa, Enceladus, Ganymede, ...? I'm asking this for a programm I'm currently writing.
Given/Known is: mass, radius, ...
2
votes
2answers
173 views
Realistic placements of Mountains and the like
This question basically boils down to this: What would be the places on a given continent where one would find mountains? I have seen maps from games, movies, board games, books etc. where it would ...
3
votes
3answers
186 views
Geological Explanation for an Unusually Temperate Northern Mountain Valley
So I'm working on a home-brew D&D setting and I have this idea for the my campaign to take place in a large isolated Valley completely surrounded by mountains. I also had the idea to have these ...
9
votes
1answer
208 views
To make a blue moon, what element does it need?
We know that Mars has a reddish color, because its ground consists of iron-based compounds. The moon is grey-whiteish because it consists mostly of silicon-based compounds.
What element should the ...
1
vote
3answers
125 views
What Else Could Create Jeffrey Linn's Coastlines BESIDES The Influence of Ice? [closed]
Who?
Unfortunately, I could not find any background information about Jeffrey Linn, but he is better known for his sea level maps. Specifically, what a particular city would look like if sea levels ...
15
votes
8answers
4k views
How to explain one side of Super Earth is smoother than the other side?
A spaceship flew across an unclassified region of the Milky Way galaxy and found a Super Earth in an unnamed system. The planet is almost twice as massive as Earth and is orbiting fairly far away ...
0
votes
5answers
117 views
How Can the Coastlines Look Similar In Spite of the Cooler Temperature
The established fact is that the shape of a planet's continental coastlines is determined by the planet's climate. Higher temperatures mean less ice, which ultimately means higher sea levels. (Case ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
What could make a ship made of pumice seaworthy?
I'm designing the type of ships an amphibious race could use for long distance travel, like a floating house, following oceanic currents. I imagine it shaped like an iceberg, with more structure below ...
29
votes
14answers
6k views
How can I launch a projectile to hit something in orbit, using only geological structures and power sources?
As an ancient organism whom currently occupies a large chunk of a planet beneath the surface, I have a pesky issue with an invasive species. These humans have decided to colonize my home, mistaking it ...
5
votes
3answers
239 views
What kinds of minerals or compounds could radiate heat?
I'm working on an RPG in a world with some magical elements, like a type of energy (so far unnamed) inherent in animals and humans. Those with high amounts of this life energy in them are thought of ...
2
votes
3answers
953 views
Real “Alchemical Transmutation” of Some Other Mineral Into Gold? [closed]
While obviously you can't really transmute something like Lead into Gold (as far as I know), is there any real-life mineral or element that could be used to artificially create Gold from whatever its ...
9
votes
4answers
3k views
Desert planet with forests at the poles
I'm thinking up a Mars or Venus type planet where the poles (or one pole) has a forest growing out of it due to a device that is used to make the planet more habitable by creating a oxygen friendly ...
