Difference between revisions of "Lithospheric mesh"

Revision as of 15:41, 16 August 2024

Moissanite gem-gum is both
– much more heat resistant and
– much stronger (higher ultimate tensile strength)
than silica bedrock. So far so fact.

The energies involved in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
are often way beyond the biggest H-bomb ever ignited (the Tsar Bomba (wikipedia) ~55megaton ~220PJ).
May orders of magnitude beyond that.
Not radioactive though.
Side note: Even the biggest asteroid impacts are not energetic enough to lead to nuclear reactions. Thankfully.

Warning! you are moving into more speculative areas. 🚬🤪

Earthquake control (and energy harvesting)

An idea here is to "install" many (very many) underground thick tensile bracing cables across tectonic faults.
Out of Moissanite gem-gum or similar material.
Rather than stopping tectonic motions (which is physically impossible as forces grow and grow without bounds)
the aim here would be the prevent sudden breaks (i.e. earthquakes) and
re-distribute the released of energy over a much longer timescale.
The energy could even be harvested.

Volcano control (and energy harvesting)

A lithospheric mesh could give access to magma and hot water chambers.

Controlled release of otherwise explosive volcanic energy

Like making controlled magma (and gasses) release-channels
to the surface at chosen least problematic places.
Magma rich in volatiles is usually what makes it dangerous and explosive.

Control of non-explosive lava flows

Today things are limited to
– limitedly high earth wall barriers and
– using seawater to slow down the advance of lava flows

Gem-gum-tec would allow for the raising of enormous lava barrier walls in very short time.
Not only passive ones. Rather actively cooled ones as complexity comes for free.

The mad-man approach: Overwhelming the "enemy" by numbers:
An unholy number of rather big and heavy heat-hardened gem-gum drones that can deal with both the hard crust and soft interior of lava-flows. Though this is likely a of: Just because you can does not mean you want or should.
This seems quite close to actual weaponry technology.

Control of hydrothermal systems

These usually don't lead to natural catastrophes but just to nice beautiful geysers.
Rather they't be used for energy or mineral extraction or just research.

Risks

Obviously these are interventions in natural processes on the largest scale thinkable.
In lithoengineering (and geoengineering in general) there are likely no second chances.
And if things go bad then … well, we can't even imagine.

Then it's time to rewrite the lyrics:
https://www.songtexte.com/songtext/within-temptation/mother-earth-53dcb73d.html
"She ru~uled until the humans came and took her apart."

See: Risk posed by Humans to life on Earth and Earth as a planet

Challenges

As possible ultimate limit:
In greater depths solubility of red hot to white hot material may become.
That is bedrock contacting the cables material may in conjunction lead to a lowered melting point.
Even with that happening if it's slow enough some active repair may be able to counteract.
requires resource and energy transport then though. <bRŕ> The limits of the physically possible will always provide interesting engineering challenged.
Some solvable,some not.

Extraterrestrial

Many bodies in our solar system do not have an atmosphere.
So there's a natural focus of mining and establishing a transport network on- and sub-surface.

Beside Venus, Io, and perhaps Europa,
Earth might be the most tectonically active geophysical planet in the solar system.
So less point in earthquake and volcano control elsewhere.

In subsurface ocean worlds (like Europa, Enceladus, and perhaps Ceres)
it would be more a cryospheric mesh and hydrospheic mesh below.

Related

• Geoengineering meshes
• deep drilling and underground working

External links

• Lowered melting point from contact of differing materials:
  eutectic system