do the Hierogrammates care about the megatherians?

Jeff Wilson · 18 May 2011, 22:49 · from 2011-May.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 17:49:17 -0500
Subject: (urth) do the Hierogrammates *care* about the megatherians?
In-Reply-To: <4DD3B104.4020305 at verizon.net>
References: <SNT123-W41EFC6ADDAE1EAB0420149CF8C0 at phx.gbl>	<4DD33432.7020009 at io.com>
	<4DD3B104.4020305 at verizon.net>
Message-ID: <4DD44CED.80108 at io.com>

On 5/18/2011 6:44 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
> 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.

c) The selection of the Himalayas was just for illustration of the 
variety of environments technically on land. I don't have any reason to 
think that the oceans would slop up that high.

b) I doubt that much plate-shifting is intended to have taken place or 
there would have been some hint of major vulcanism that would result. 
"New continents" might be a subtle play on the watery connotations of 
incontinence rather than a literal prophecy. Rising water could be 
driven by undermined and collapsing icecaps (which extend past Tierra 
Del Fuego in Sev's time), though I think that would arrive as a series 
of tsunamis rather than creeping floods or rivers topping the levies.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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