A world without oceans?

[Borgholio]

How about it sinking into the mantle?

If it sank down through a hole, then that hole would seal itself rapidly due to the upwelling of the magma.

[jwl]

How about it sinking into the mantle?

If it sank down through a hole, then that hole would seal itself rapidly due to the upwelling of the magma.

I'm not talking about it sinking into a hole, I'm talking about the mantle itself becoming slightly more porous somehow and letting the water in. A bit like baxter's Flood in reverse. The actual mechanism for this isn't something I can think of, but there isn't that much known about water in the mantle in the first place.

[Borgholio]

If that much water suddenly was sucked into the mantle, I would expect a massive steam explosion that would parboil much of the Earth's surface.

[Iroscato]

If that much water suddenly was sucked into the mantle, I would expect a massive steam explosion that would parboil much of the Earth's surface.

It could be gradual, this thought occurred to me earlier. Or maybe the oceans have just partially evaporated...somehow.

[Zeropoint]

A wizard did it.

[madd0ct0r]

If that much water suddenly was sucked into the mantle, I would expect a massive steam explosion that would parboil much of the Earth's surface.

It could be gradual, this thought occurred to me earlier. Or maybe the oceans have just partially evaporated...somehow.

Water in the crust is sort-of chemically trapped within mineral arrays. I suppose you could have some flip over in the core, magentosphere pulsing randomly as it does so, damaging or wiping most hard drives, tape backups ect.

The flip over results in a new roll over in the mantle, a time of volcanoes and earthquakes and calamities, with new rifts opening in the sea beds with molecular water being sucked into previously dehydrated rock systems, pulling the oceans down and leaving a tide of salt above the cliffs of the continental plates.


This all in the realm of mad max physics, mind, it's not remotely realistic, any more then Baxter's flood was.

[Imperial Overlord]

The best way to read the salt flat exchange is that there is a big area of salt flats and they don't know what lies beyond it, Furiosa thinks augmented with scavenging/gathering their supplies will last 160 days, and Max is saying that whatever lies beyond the salt flats isn't going to be much different than what's on this side of the flats and they already know where food, water, and fertile earth can be found. Instead of massive and unsurvivable planetary changes this interpretation only requires that people who have lived in a post apocalyptic hell for decades are skilled scavengers and not inclined to giving long, drawn out explanations.

[gigabytelord]

The best way to read the salt flat exchange is that there is a big area of salt flats and they don't know what lies beyond it, Furiosa thinks augmented with scavenging/gathering their supplies will last 160 days, and Max is saying that whatever lies beyond the salt flats isn't going to be much different than what's on this side of the flats and they already know where food, water, and fertile earth can be found. Instead of massive and unsurvivable planetary changes this interpretation only requires that people who have lived in a post apocalyptic hell for decades are skilled scavengers and not inclined to giving long, drawn out explanations.

Thank you that's exactly what I was trying to say earlier but didn't come across the way I wanted.

[Lonestar]

I'm not sure why anyone acts as if Max knows what's on the other side of the dry lake. He didn't know anything about the "green place", for example. He doesn't seem to have much knowledge of the local geography.

[Patroklos]

The only evidence is the salt flats, and that isn't really conclusive. The crows area was muddy and had been farmland in the past. Salt intrusion into aquifers seems more likely.

Besides, mad max films are like 300. They are legends narrated to an audience with the visual exaggerated and stylised.

Its the size of the salt flats that weighs against them being anything other than the oceans.

The problem is a recently evaporated sea bed wouldn't be flat.

[jwl]

The only evidence is the salt flats, and that isn't really conclusive. The crows area was muddy and had been farmland in the past. Salt intrusion into aquifers seems more likely.

Besides, mad max films are like 300. They are legends narrated to an audience with the visual exaggerated and stylised.

Its the size of the salt flats that weighs against them being anything other than the oceans.

The problem is a recently evaporated sea bed wouldn't be flat.

If the ocean evaporated or sank into the mantle it would leave tens of metres deep of salt which would smooth out landscape features.

[SMJB]

If the ocean evaporated or sank into the mantle it would leave tens of metres deep of salt which would smooth out landscape features.

And all that salt would gather in the abyssal plain, well below the continental shelves. If the ocean hasn't lowered that much, then we're not dealing with all the salt of the oceans. If they are in the abyssal plain, how did they get all those cars and shit down there? Not to mention that the atmosphere would be at least half again as dense as it is at current sea level.

[jwl]

Note: I haven't actually watched mad max, I'm just speculating based on what I've been told in this thread.

Not sure why the atmosphere would be half as much, though. Baxter's flood says something similar (except in reverse, of course) but surely the air pressure levels would move down with the water?

[SMJB]

Note: I haven't actually watched mad max, I'm just speculating based on what I've been told in this thread.

Not sure why the atmosphere would be half as much, though. Baxter's flood says something similar (except in reverse, of course) but surely the air pressure levels would move down with the water?

Half again as much, as in, 1.5 times, and it's because we've now got all these former continents jutting dozens of kilometers up into the atmosphere.

Something like this: http://www.worlddreambank.org/S/SIP.HTM

[jwl]

I get it now.