/sci/ - Science & Math

How? Very well.
Expect whatever we have in Gonwanaland..

How big is the landmass?

Central area might well be a giant desert if there's no water near it.

That's ~10,200,000 square kilometres of land, assuming the planet is the same size as Earth.

>>1532345
The 'landmass' I see as an archipelago dorung wet season and as a plain with hills during the dry one.

Is this 2 season scenario possible?

>>1532346


Do explain, my google-fu is weak today.

Sounds like it would be an interesting novel.
Anyways, it depends on how the land is arranged. If it is a large landmass that is circular-like, the center would be a desert most likely. If it is a chain of islands, then they would either be swallowed up, or very lush and tropical areas, with extremely high humidity.

>>1532353
The scenario you describe isn't possible with only rain causing the rising water. You would need a very high tide for it. One possibility is a massive satellite in a highly eccentric orbit that takes it far away during the dry season and close by during the wet season, causing a massive tide that raises the seawater over the plains. The tide would only last a short time, though, since the satellite would sweep past rather quickly.


Also, he meant Gondwanaland

>>1532353
Reminds me of Spirited Away

>>1532370
How about it's in a huge crater lake at sea level that fills up with water in the rainy season, and drains in the spring?

Be more specific: 98% water by total mass, or by surface area?

>>1532385


Surface. But the planet is bigger than Earth, like 4-5 times.

>>1532381

Thats just too crazy.

>>1532381
Then you will need a reason for there to be peaks in the crater for there to be islands. A possible scenario would be that the crater is an ancient supervolcano and the peaks are old lava vents that have weathered into islands.

>>1532391
Tidal forces is probably your best bet. Another alternative (though more science fictiony) would be some sort of cyclically rising and falling land mass due to some sort of geothermic reaction.

>>1532391
is the gravity also higher than earth?

If not, the planet would have to be very sparse or consist of mainly light elements.

If the planet is massive and mostly covered by water, the seas would have to be rather shallow, mostly a few hundred feet deep, the gravity pulling the planet into a sphere with less irregularities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea

a larger planet means heavier gravity. heavier gravity means smaller life forms on land, since the materials that make life forms can only take so much stress from increased weight. don't know how it would affect aquatic life though. also, geologic history of the planet?

>>1532438


I want it to be a very old and very stable planet.
Life is old, civilization is only few thousand years old. War is to be 'invented' during my story.

>>1532438


But the Earth once had huge beasts and the gravity is the same. A planet 5x Earth could have bears as big as ours.

Op your planet would have no metals, little timber and limited rock/stone for building.

With no materials to build and heavy storms you are fucked.

>>1532432
How is this 2% land mass?

A small variance in landmass is to be expected when they departed due to tectonics, but a loss of around 28% seems harsh.

>>1532460
So medium-sized islands with a lot of water in between to keep the earlier conflicts down.

>>1532460
with an old, stable planet, the landmass would be mostly eroded, which actually fits into the mostly covered in water idea. continent would probably be fairly flat, without much hard rock on top, i.e., good for plants. the edges would probably have formed massive deltas and marshes.

>>1532482
i'm talking in terms of all things equal between planet x and earth. during the times when megafauna existed, the atmospheric conditions were different, as was the climate. but you can see what i'm talking about in ligers. since they are the disfigured bastard children of two entirely different species, they are born without the ability to stop growing as they mature. because their bone and muscle structures are still ~proportional to lions and tigers, they very often suffer from broken bones.

I'd imagine you'd see gigantic nigh-perpetual hurricanes that travel around the planet, potentially lasting years. Civilization will have a hard time taking root unless it was of extraterrestrial origin and had the technology to protect itself from the havoc the hurricanes would cause.

Animals would most likely be amphibious or fast breeding, seeing the dangerous weather.

>>1532489
There is no reason you couldn't have metals. Metals are formed in stars, not planets. Also, if a planet didn't have an iron core, it would get fucked by solar radiation due to lack of a magnetic field.

OP: Something like that could quite easily happen if there were just an overabundance of water on a planet. You shouldn't really need to explain it with a plot device. Likely, though, population would be limited by space enough that you would have little to no uninhabited areas, and likely, depending on the stage of development the civilization was in, would begin settling the seas in various ways. Overall, though, you would expect a LOT of rain.

>>1532523
The massive storms aren't necessary.
The planet could be tidally locked, with the seas circulating heat from dayside to nightside to keep the planet habitable. There'd probably still be an icecap on the nightside, but it wouldn't cover it all.

The ceacurrents would be rather complex in this case.