Questions tagged [topography]
Topography is a specialized study of geology that focuses on the shapes of both natural and artificial shapes of planetary land masses both small and large. Questions using this tag focus on the shape of the land mass or object, not what constitutes that shape (which is a geology question). Questions using this tag may also be about mapping elevations or the effect of a shape or elevation on climate, ecology, or culture.
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The Topography of Madness: Why would my lighthouse be designed with noisy, maddening switches? [closed]
My world is dead and mostly unexplored. And at the end of the known world, there is a beacon which serves that singular purpose: warning anyone approaching that beyond this point, there is nothing ...
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Do the mountains formed by a divergent boundary form on either coast of the resulting channel, or on the part that has not yet separated?
The lakes and the bay are formed by the rift where the right chunk is diverging away from the main plate. I've put mountains on the land part of the rift a la Ethiopia's Great Rift Valley, but should ...
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Could a planet have ocean basins if it did not have an ocean?
If a planet, lets call her Shiloh, had no oceans or liquid water on the surface; Could it still have deep, vast ocean basins? Or would a dry ocean basin level out over time?
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How long would it take to build an artificial island above the Kerguelen Plateau? [closed]
Without thinking about the costs, how long would it take to build an artificial island the size of New Zealand on the shallow waters above the Kerguelen Plateau? This means using one million boats ...
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How to Supply a City on top of a Vertical Cliff?
In my fantasy series, there’s this city called Pharcos situated on top of nearly vertical 3,500ish foot high sandstone cliffs above the river it uses for water.
This river, called the Clazelis, along ...
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Valleys of Eternal Night on 0 degree worlds
After watching this youtube short, an idea occured to me. This town of Viganella is in darkness for 83 days per year because of the relatively low position of the sun in the sky. However, if the ...
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What yield of nuclear explosive would need to be detonated in Valencia, Spain, to flood the Balearic Islands?
A nuclear device goes off on the beach in Valencia, Spain - immediately adjacent to the ocean. How large will this device need to be in order to flood a majority of the human settlements in the ...
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What would be the effects on terrain of an atomic bomb on a Sahelian or Saharan grassland or desert?
So, I'm coming up with a world in which, after a nuclear war in Africa, there is a bunker in the country of Chad. The landscape has been affected by over 50 atomic bombs. The main characters leave the ...
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Natural continental isolation in the form of a long string of cliffs?
In my worldbuilding there's a planet with a continental population, that was until a certain period of time unknown for the rest of the world. The continent in question is positioned in such a way ...
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Is my topology/are my climate zones alright?
This is my first try at worldbuilding, and I need some feedback. I've filled in what I hope are realistic climate zones, ocean currents and topology for this current state of the world, all done in ...
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Is it Possible to Have Snow-Capped Mountains Directly on a Tropical Beach? [duplicate]
In my world, there is an archipelago that is home to the Coorabar Alps, the highest mountain range in the entire known galaxy (quite a few peaks here surpass 30,000 feet, and they form a plateau on ...
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world with a lot of plateaus and very little plains [closed]
I want to create a gimmick world, that is ALMOST entirely covered up with massive mesa/canyon-like structures : flat-topped elevation ridges or hills bounded by steep escarpments. The space in between ...
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Is it possible to have multiple different climates within one O'Neill cylinder?
The illustrations of O'Neill cylinders I have come across with so far
allow unrestricted view through the whole tube. Some are more playful with topography but still, there is a visible end. Are ...
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How Can I Draw a Realistic Topographic Map?
I have a planet I created. I have the water and land boundaries, and I have the important mountain ranges, forests, and deserts defined.
Now that I've done this, I want to turn my cartoony world map ...
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Why would one hemisphere of a planet be very mountainous while the other is flat?
Background
I just read this question about how to get a planet to have one hemisphere with tropical climate and one with polar climate.
The (not yet accepted) answer with the highest score ...
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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 ...
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Ringstadt: How sensible is my topography?
Look at you all sitting here. Quite some of you have probably never ventured beyond the outskirts of this city, mayhaps not even past the wall? You've spent your whole lives in this place, but what do ...
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