tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post2273301655522875974..comments2023-09-07T07:16:10.305-04:00Comments on Flights of Fantasy: Five monobiome worldsMarian Pererahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15700524210146863718noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post-83772250749503413712012-03-06T12:52:47.137-05:002012-03-06T12:52:47.137-05:00I think I read about that interior-of-the-continen...I think I read about that interior-of-the-continent vs. near-the-ocean difference in Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel", though I could be wrong. The example given was of England's climate vs. that of the former Soviet Union, though of course I thought about Canada's climate instead. <br /><br />Though this winter has been a lot milder than I expected. Global warming, maybe?Marian Pererahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15700524210146863718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post-2437031795437141782012-03-05T20:22:49.547-05:002012-03-05T20:22:49.547-05:00There are two ways to make strongly fluctuating en...There are two ways to make strongly fluctuating environments: high axial tilt and highly eccentric orbits. Darren Williams and David Pollard of Penn State U have done some climate simulations of these cases, because of what exoplanets may have.<br /><br />As one would expect, high tilt makes high latitudes hot and dry in the summer and cold and wet/snowy in the winter, with equatorial regions having cool to moderate temperatures.<br /><br />High eccentricity produces a pulse of heating when nearest the planet's sun, and cooling the rest of the time.<br /><br />Climates inside continents have greater temperature contrasts than climates at or near oceans, because all that water has a lot of thermal inertia, and land doesn't have as much. It happens in our world, and it also happens in the simulations. The oceans go up to 40 C and the continent interiors up to 80 - 100 C in the hotter parts of these simulations. Likewise, continent interiors get colder than the oceans in the cold parts.Lorenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984896453534621864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post-65190311030329337362012-03-05T18:00:15.353-05:002012-03-05T18:00:15.353-05:00Loren - That reminds me of the TV Tropes page on &...Loren - That reminds me of the TV Tropes page on "death worlds", because IIRC at least one of the examples given was of a planet where environmental conditions varied <i>sharply</i>. To the point where animals had to retreat underground if they wanted to remain alive (and of course, they fought and preyed on each other there).<br /><br />Yes, it makes sense that a single-biome world isn't likely to have mountains, which is too bad. I was just imagining a world made entirely of solid rock, though I couldn't really reconcile this with erosion.Marian Pererahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15700524210146863718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post-55141064685401645202012-03-05T17:49:50.266-05:002012-03-05T17:49:50.266-05:00Hi Mark, thanks for stopping by! I love reading ab...Hi Mark, thanks for stopping by! I love reading about RPGs (and mining them for inspiration), so I'll be checking out anything else you have on that topic.Marian Pererahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15700524210146863718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post-77955388674843438492012-03-05T11:42:21.946-05:002012-03-05T11:42:21.946-05:00That's pretty much it, Marian. For further red...That's pretty much it, Marian. For further reduction in biome variety, one would also need low continents and islands, so as reduce inland and upland and mountain biomes.<br /><br />However, lots of scattered continents and islands will be good for biodiversity.<br /><br />Over the last billion years, the Earth has alternated between "greenhouse" and "icehouse" climates.<br /><br />Greenhouse - warm, wet, continents dispersed, mountains low<br />Early Paleozoic, Mesozoic - early Cenozoic<br /><br />Icehouse - cool, dry, continents together, mountains high<br />Late Proteozoic, late Paleozoic, late Cenozoic, present<br /><br />So the Earth was closer to a single-biome state during greenhouse periods than during icehouse ones. But even in such periods, it had wet and dry land areas. <a href="http://scotese.com/climate.htm" rel="nofollow">Chris Scotese's Continental-Drift Reconstructions: Climate History</a> It's also easier than I expected to make it warm all over: <a href="https://nice.larc.nasa.gov/?q=node/488" rel="nofollow">New Study Shows How Tortoises, Alligators Thrived in High Arctic Some 50 Million Years Ago | NASA Innovations in Climate Education</a> (early Eocene). From oxygen-isotope abundances in fossil parts, "The team concluded the average temperatures of the warmest month on Ellesmere Island during the early Eocene were from 66 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (19-20 degrees C), while the coldest month temperature was about 32 to 38 degrees F (0-3.5 degrees C)." Far from what it is today, very cold and icy, while still being far north.Lorenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984896453534621864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post-28721446631286094192012-03-05T03:49:50.170-05:002012-03-05T03:49:50.170-05:00Your post on my blog got me curious, so here I am ...Your post on my blog got me curious, so here I am :) Thank you for stopping by the hearth, you're always welcome.<br /><br />I think I'm going to enjoy reading through your blog. Looking forward to it ;)<br /><br />Kind regards,<br /><br />MarkMark Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13002166292175980928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post-18960175004449398352012-03-04T12:19:09.897-05:002012-03-04T12:19:09.897-05:00An Earthlike planet with less sunlight than what t...An Earthlike planet with less sunlight than what the Earth now gets, like 80%. That's what the Earth got about 3 - 4 billion years ago.<br /><br />It would have 10% instead of present 0.01% CO2 in its atmosphere. That's what will warm it enough to keep water liquid and make weathering that soaks up any more CO2. Though it will likely be warm even at the poles, it may still have wet and dry areas.<br /><br />Imagine the Earth a bit farther from the Sun than it is now, about 10% farther, and you'd get something like this scenario.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~g105lab/1425chap11.htm" rel="nofollow">Climate Regulation and Atmosphere Evolution through Geologic Time</a>Lorenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984896453534621864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post-89502772279501590592012-03-03T22:07:04.562-05:002012-03-03T22:07:04.562-05:00Now I'm picturing a world like the Eco-Sphere ...Now I'm picturing a world like the Eco-Sphere - you know, those glass globes containing a shrimp, algae and bacteria, forming a complete ecosystem? That might contribute to a greenhouse effect - and would ensure a single biome within. <br /><br />Though the ecosystem inside would have to remain consistent and stable. No introducing new elements unless the old ones died out.Marian Pererahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15700524210146863718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2125325709844932289.post-89231246803520553932012-03-03T15:14:10.754-05:002012-03-03T15:14:10.754-05:00Thanx. It's most interesting.
In our Solar Sy...Thanx. It's most interesting.<br /><br />In our Solar System, we have a planet with a cold-desert biome: Mars. Complete with dust storms. But there's lots of evidence that Mars once had liquid water, including oceans.<br /><br />As to water worlds, some extrasolar planets, like GJ 1214b, have densities low enough to suggest that they have deep oceans on them. Thousands of mi/km depth.<br /><br />The present-day Earth has several climate zones: tropical hot-and-wet, subtropical hot-and-dry, temperate medium-and-wet, and polar cold-and-dry, all from how much sunlight per unit area each bit of land gets. Diablo II has all of them and then some. Act I: temperate, Act II: subtropical, Act III: tropical, Act IV: volcanic, Act V: polar (up in the mountains). You yourself have lived in most of these zones.<br /><br />An Earthlike planet with a single biome would be hard to do without a big greenhouse effect that evens out the temperature a lot. The early Earth likely had one, since it had liquid water despite the Sun being somewhat fainter.Lorenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984896453534621864noreply@blogger.com