do the Hierogrammates care about the megatherians?

David Stockhoff · 18 May 2011, 11:44 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 07:44:04 -0400
Subject: (urth) do the Hierogrammates *care* about the megatherians?
In-Reply-To: <4DD33432.7020009 at io.com>
References: <SNT123-W41EFC6ADDAE1EAB0420149CF8C0 at phx.gbl>
	<4DD33432.7020009 at io.com>
Message-ID: <4DD3B104.4020305 at verizon.net>

On 5/17/2011 10:51 PM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> On 5/17/2011 12:15 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
>> Despite the words of the Caloyer of Saltus (as Lane mentions) it *is* 
>> puzzling
>> as to why a Flood would eliminate ocean-bound monstrosities.
>
> No more so than a volcanic explosion or a hurricane eliminating 
> land-bound monstrosities. Water has 200 times the density of air, so 
> you need much less of a sustained change in the speed of orderly 
> currents to produce a destroying column of water than of air. And 
> imagine how mammoths and plains dinosaurs would fare if they found 
> themselves and their food web swept to the high mountain peaks and 
> back, or even just flung up into the Himalayas.
>
> "The Flood" is what we land creatures call it, from the pelagic 
> perspective it's "The Surge" or "The Tsunami".
>
We don't know (a) how much pressure Abaia or Erebus' bodies can 
stand---we know zero about their physiology or technology (b) whether 
the flooding comes from plate shifting or rising water---but where else 
would all that water come from? (c) how high the waters got---did they 
overwhelm the Tibetan plateau? (d) what the effect on nonhuman land life 
is to be---presumably (from UotNS) everything but plants, some birds, 
and simple or numerous marine life (and maybe some mountain goats) is 
gone. The planet is still very alive but empty of advanced life.

We also don't really know the mechanism of the Flood. The seas appear to 
have risen by many meters in the area of Nessus. If it's gravitational 
jerking around from the sudden proximity of a "white hole" then yes, you 
would expect some significant shocks to the continental plates and vast 
tsunamis. If all human life is to be wiped out by these shocks and 
tsunamis but for a few people in a boat, then the effect on highly 
evolved undersea monsters will be catastrophic as well. And since they 
are individuals, their survival is statistically unlikely.

This is still the most reasonable result. Part of the reason it's 
confusing is that the extent of the Flood is not revealed until UotNS.


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