From: Michael Lorrey (mike@datamann.com)
Date: Fri Jan 26 2001 - 16:06:36 MST
Michael Lorrey wrote:
>
> Spike Jones wrote:
> >
> > Hey, Ive an idea. Many will agree that a rising sea is bad for those
> > who live near it on low ground. What if we were to intentionally
> > lower the sea level? Wouldnt we recover a bunch of ground that
> > is currently good for nothing but lazy surfers and such? The Dutch
> > would love this idea: could we not pump sea water inland on
> > Antarctica and spew it into the sky on a cold dark summer day?
> > We would create a mountain of ice and salt that would store water
> > in a sense. Then we go ahead and let the earth warm up a bit,
> > making it more hospitable to those who have a lotta money.
> >
> > Has this idea been proposed before?
>
> I don't know, but this brings up an idea: What impact upon ocean sea
> levels has the Russian redirecting of rivers away from the Caspian and
> Aral seas done? If water flows were corrected, would this mitigate
> rising sea levels?
Ok, after researching this, It turns out the Caspian Sea has risen some
2.25 meters since 1978 (it had previously dropped 1.77 meters between
1933 and 1978) and is risking some coastal damage, however, its surface
is still 28 meters below sea level. With a surface area of 373,000
square km, and another 100,000 sq km of adjacent land below sea level,
this results in 1.15 x 10^13 cubic meters of volume below sea level
available for flooding. This flooding should provide 10 cm of worldwide
sea level lowering. If we wanted to we could pump an additional 200
meters of sea water up to the Caspian Sea from the Black Sea, which
would cover about 600,000 sq km and lower oceanic sea levels by at least
a meter.
Now, if we covered the area in a big space blanket, how quickly could we
freeze that water into ice for storage?
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