Questions tagged [water]
For questions that have to do with the liquid form of H2O.
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Could a planet have oceans of heavy water? [duplicate]
Heavy water, or deuterium oxide, is a form of water where the hydrogen atoms contain a proton and a neutron, rather than just a proton as in “normal water”. It is toxic to earth life but luckily, on ...
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How to stop water runoff on floating islands that lack an available surface
I am building a world with islands floating in air, and I'm looking for solutions to loss of water from runoff/erosion (think rivers emptying off the side of the islands). The islands vary in size, ...
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Feasible? A natural geothermal water pump the scale of multiple Mississippi rivers
I want a continent of waterfalls: a place on the scale of South America where the land is broken terraces from mountain heights to sea level. And I want massive waterfalls to be ubiquitous, like ...
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What adaptations would be needed for life and water around a blue star?
Of course it's very obvious that blue stars are insanely hot and would boil away most things if they got too close. BUT I'm curious if with just the right adaptations and fiddling, could there, ...
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Converting mars’ atmosphere to water
So, I have come to the decision that there is no one easy way to bring water to Mars. So, in light of that, i have decided on several methods which will be used simultaneously, and which I hope will ...
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How much of Mars is covered if 10 quadrillion tonnes of water fall on it?
The setting:
In trying to terraform Mars quickly, I am imagining that Phobos, (the bigger of its two moons) holds ten-quadrillion tonnes of water ice beneath its stony regolith. I am further supposing ...
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What global warming level would be needed to keep the dew point of some place above the temperature of the lungs for at least 1 month per year?
Title might be a bit hard to understand but let me explain : when the dew point is above humans temperature (37℃) the water condenses in the lungs which are at a lower temperature than the air which ...
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sources of water for martian terraformers
The terraforming of Mars, assuming that the hurdle of establishing a magnetic field has already been jumped, now meets another problem: water. The planet has a pair of ice caps, but between them they ...
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Fog and a small "Tsunami", appearing suddenly
For the final act of a story I'm building, I'm planning a scene that involves the sudden appearance of fog, along with a small Tsunami, affecting part of the city.
To ask this question, I am going to ...
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Habitable planet without oceans and with all rivers flowing towards the poles
The surface of this planet is about 3/4 the one of earth. It has no oceans or seas, its landscape defined by huge mountain ranges between 15 and 25km high. Most mountain ranges are latitudinal (N-S), ...
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How would the water cycle work on a planet with barely any atmosphere?
See title.
My world is far away from any stars so radiation is of no worry but a very active volcanic system keeps the temperature at similar rates to our planet. The lack of an atmosphere stops any ...
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Would convection cycles happen in my water-filled space station?
Imagine a space station orbiting a star.
The station is not orbiting a planet.
The station has cylinder shape and is orienting its side to the sunlight.
The station is rotating just like any O'Neil ...
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When dealing with a drought or a bushfire, is a million tons of water overkill?
The people of the Vorfall Panzer Werkstat gesellschaft build the largest aircraft in the galaxy. The pride of their fleet is currently the Gyre Explorer, which is an aircraft weighing in at 140,000 ...
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Could animals/plants survive off of coolant instead of water?
Say there was a source of water that animals and plants alike were surviving in, a sort of desert oasis situation, here we have Fred, he is an animal who lives off of this body of water. Buts let's ...
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Any natural way that a River can "move" by hundreds of kilometers seasonally
I'm designing a Nomadic culture and I had an interesting concept.
One of the reasons for nomadism is to find resources that "move" annually.
In the case of pastoral nomads, it is to find new ...
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Is it biologically plausible for a land animal to drink saltwater and not drink freshwater?
I'm trying to come up with a land animal that can drink saltwater but for some reason cannot drink freshwater. The advantage of drinking saltwater would be that they can get drinking water straight ...
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Would a solar flare hitting the earth cause rainfall? [closed]
If you have hydrogen gas, oxygen gas and heat together, it will trigger an (exotermic) reaction that produces water.
Earths atmosphere consists of around 21% oxygen.
Our sun is made mostly out of ...
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How to Feed a City with a Subarctic Climate?
The city of Civitas Sykofantia sits on the shore of Lake Sykofantia, a high-elevation salt lake the size of Lake Superior in the US. The lake is located on the Great Pagomenos Plateau, a huge ...
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Permeability of mountainous rock by seawater
This is tied to a previous question of mine Does atmospheric pressure relate to altitude or sea level, what would happen if sea level rose, but the land was not submerged?
Given the same scenario of a ...
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What geographic/climate changes does the Arabian Peninsula need to become a rainforest?
Despite being surrounded by waters on all sides, the Arabian Peninsula is mostly a massive desert. As a result, Arabia was generally a hinterland for most of early history and there aren't a lot of ...
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Weather patterns on a world with a homogenous distribution of land and ocean?
What would the weather patterns be like on an Earth with a more homogenous distribution of land and ocean? That is, keep the overall amount of water the same, the ratio of water to land the same (...
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Was there a waterproof paper or a substitute that could be written on in the medieval ages?
I'm making a character that keeps their books stored in their many large mouths. Thing is, it's a medieval setting and I'm not sure how the book would be made to survive being in such an environment.
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Is a Bussard Ramjet for collecting water possible
My spacecraft's propellant is water, so an idea I came up with is that it would melt icy bodies in the rings of gas giants into water vapour. Is it possible to collect water vapour with some sort of ...
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Is orangeish water possible on an alien planet with advanced life?
A planet little bigger than earth with slightly less gravity.
Colder than the earth, with longer days and shorter years. And water prevalence: 32% (23% surface water and 9% subterranean) and two moons....
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Is a world where all the water is "heavy water" possible?
I recently discovered that there is another kind of water : heavy water.
Heavy water is made of deuterium, a heavier isotope of hydrogen. Heavy water itself is 11% percent heavier than "normal&...
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What would this combination lubricant/cleaning solution smell like and taste like?
On an alien Dyson Sphere up in space, there is a blackish-blue slime that is everywhere on the sphere. It's slippery to the touch and is basically a combination of cleaning fluid, disinfectant, and ...
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Could a Massive Freshwater Lake and River System Exist in a Desert Environment?
In my book series, there is this lake called Lake Pheron. Lake Pheron's surface is located about 2,200 feet above sea level in a mostly flat, inland area called the Tangolian Desert. This desert is ...
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Geyser as drinkable water source in arid climate
My world is a life-bearing moon orbiting a gas giant. There will be plenty of geysers due to gravitational tectonic activity. Is it possible for geysers to happen in the middle of hot and arid biomes? ...
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How different would water need to be for boats to be impossible?
I mean changing the actual physics behind water (density, and other properties). How different would water need to be, to result in ships being impossible to build? (i.e. the ability to create ...
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Tide without moons
I’m creating a planet which is relatively similar in size towards earth being slightly smaller. It’s covered in oceans and about only 17% of it is covered in land. The planet has no moons.
I don’t ...
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How can I make a technologically correct horizontal watermill clock?
Context
As I was working on some mechanical ideas (and practicing art), I wanted to see how to render time in creative ways. So I decided to make an horizontal watermill akin to a turbine, which has ...
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How dangerous would a vertical water surface be?
In my setting, there is an area that is usually filled with water at high tide and a land bridge at low tide. One day, a magical wall appeared that does not let water through, but does let through ...
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How much water does an animal need per day to survive?
I'm creating a TTRPG game where players can play as vertebrates from any time period on earth. I'm trying to make my game as realistic as possible and one thing I have to do to make it more realistic ...
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How does a plain surrounded by desert get rain?
So, in my world, I have a city built in a plain surrounded by a desert. The plain got to be there by magic and general hand waving and was sustained in a similar way. At some point, that stopped being ...
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Transit for an advanced aquatic species?
I'm designing an aquatic, fish-like species for a sci-fi setting and I've had trouble deciding on methods of transit, particularly mass transit, that would be viable for them. I've considered a few ...
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Plants or something else that enriches distilled water
I'm writing a story in a world very similar to our Earth, but with few differences.
In this world, the "human" beings have to deal with the shortage of drinkable water. But they have plenty ...
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Drinking water distribution in the event of permanent shortage [closed]
In a world with a strong water deficiency and without the possibility to produce more. It is at a level where some people die of thirst. How could drinking water usage be regulated? Distribution per ...
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Is it healthy to only drink rain water?
I read that it is perfectly fine to be drinking collected rain water as long as the air and the container are not polluted. However, would it be possible for a civilization to
survive and
live ...
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Can there be an ocean in a CO2 atmosphere?
See my first question here and other things about atmosphere: What would be the color of a CO2 atmosphere?
Hi so I have a planet with a CO2 atmosphere so can there be any ocean on this planet?
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Would merfolk kept in captivity suffer from lack of oxygen?
In my story, in the midst of a human-merfolk war, merfolk are captured by humans, and are periodically de-scaled (they grow back) to sell their colorful scales as jewelry.
In these farms, the merfolk ...
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What happens to my candy-creatures when they get wet and how do I stop it?
Dilithoids or as I call them candy-creatures are the lowest animals on the food-chain on my arid alien planet. What distinguishes them from other alien fauna is their simple body plan and their ...
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Could the differences between day and night on this desert planet allow for strictly nocturnal condensation?
Here's the basic gist of this (debatably) habitable Earth-like desert planet:
Size: Same as Earth
Rotation: 30 hours (three extra hours of daylight followed by three extra hours of night)
Revolution:...
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What would be the technological limitations of an advanced aquatic species? [duplicate]
My latest idea for worldbuilding involves a world in which the surface of the planet is 95% of the planet's surface covered in saltwater (there are still minerals and other collectible resources on ...
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How realistically practical is hydrokinetic flight?
According to what I've looked up, the average human is 60% water, and 60% of that water is in cells. Lets assume this "hydrokinesis" is limited to telekinetically lifting and moving liquid ...
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How efficient would pumping water uphill be using hydropower?
How efficient would hydropower be at pumping water upward? Waterwheels are the cornerstone of unmanned power and are basically gravity powered (solar too if you count the water cycle,) which is very ...
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What quantity of neutron radiation could a water-filled inflatable mattress functionally negate?
I have a character who's a paranoid lunatic that's convinced that a nuclear war is about to break out. As a result of this, they've pumped several inflatable mattresses - you know, the type used for ...
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What would the purgatorial lake be like?
The purgatorial lake in an artificial lake formed from the five rivers of heaven and hell. These rivers are:
The syrup river of heaven, a river of golden syrup
The seed river of heaven, a river of ...
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What would the climate and ecosystems be like if instead of water, land would be 71% of Earth's surface?
According to the Bureau of Reclamation, water covers about 71% of the Earth's surface. Everything from microbes in the ocean releasing greenhouse gases into the air, to the immense amount of water ...
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Is water recycling really necessary in space?
Solar panels = energy
Mineral harvesting machines= materials
3D printers that print solar panels= infinite energy
So we got the energy part out of the way for space travel, just build more satelites ...
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How big are the waves created by water falling from an absurdly large pipe into a quarry basin?
A pipe 200-meters in diameter comes out of a cliff face and turns downward, like a bathtub faucet. A torrent of water is coming out: 10 meters from exit of faucet to surface of lake. The lake is 40 ...
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