Making an Island/Methods
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
This page describes some of the possible methods for creating an island.
Contents |
[edit] Dumping Method
The easiest (and simplest) method is to import large quantities of rocks and soil into a shallow pool of water until the hill it forms breaks the surface.
Advantages:
Solid Foundation
Disadvantages:
Expensive
Not movable
Must be placed in shallow water
Expansion requires enough material to fill a volume from your extended surface to the sea floor i.e. 10 m^2 of extra land in 10 m of water will require at least 100 meters cubed of material.
Erosion will be a problem without some way to hold the island together.
[edit] Ripley's Floating method
Get broken fishnets from trash and tie empty plastic bottles to it and fill with soil. To make it larger you would have to tie the fishnets together. Not too much is known about this since it only got a five-minute spot on television. The Ripley's island is not anchored to the sea floor in any way but does not float away for some reason.
Advantage: Free and environmentally friendly
Disadvantage: Vunerable to violent storms
[edit] General Floating Island
Advantages:
Movable
Can be placed anywhere
If it is built as a set of modules then expansion is almost unlimited.
Disadvantages:
No foundation for building.
Poor anchors will result in island drifting.
Storms damage may be more severe as centre of gravity is much higher compared to a normal sea floor constructed island.
[edit] Seacrete Method
Utilising electricity to cause minerals to be deposited onto a mesh of conductive wire. Over time it will form a substance similar in strength to concrete.
Advantages
Construction is inexpensive. Cost is the price of the mesh foundation and the electricity required to deposit the seacrete.
Massive structures can be built.
Seacrete structures may become the basis of new reefs
Disadvantages
Still poorly understood
Will probably require shallow water
[edit] Large Ship Method
Most expensive method compared to any listed above. This method was depicted in the movie Waterworld and in the book Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson as a place where people made a permanent residence on an abandoned large ship. Snowcrash in particular makes mention of a large inter-connected city of lashed boats connected to a decommissioned aircraft carrier (the U.S.S. Nimitz in this case). With little propulsion it was forced to go with the flow of the sea currents using its engines to only keep away from the territorial waters of countries.
Also the Mindstar series of books by Peter F Hamilton (Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder and The Nano Flower) also describe the use of ships and large floating concrete structures in the middle of the Atlantic as a manufacturing facility and spaceport, using large OTEC generators to provide cheap electricity from the thermal difference between deep sea water and surface water.
Advantages:
May be used in deep sea oceans without anchorage strictly necessary.
Mobility of structure is possible, with even large power facilities available.
Basic utilities and resources such as water purification, power generation, communications, and other basic requirements for survival are usually available and built-in to basic design of ship.
Surviving major storms is possible, although deep sea natural phenomona (including deep sea tidal waves) are still not totally understood.
May serve as "anchor" to a larger island complex using one or more of the above listed methods.
Gives an "instant start" to any island structure, including basic life support and shelter.
Disadvantages:
Expense. You need to be multi-millionaire-expensive to even get a decommissioned vessel.
Dragging arround a "flotilla" of other island structures (like many of those listed above besides this method) may prove difficult at best.
Sovereignty claims may be made on the original vessel. Most major ships are usually "flagged" to a specific nation-state, although there are "flags of convience" to many vessels, and it may be possible to find a "stateless" vessel.
Any abandoned or decommissioned ship may have significant structural damage, including saltwater corrosion, damaged components, or genuine antique facilities with no spare parts. This may require knowledge of a machine shop to maintain to build custom tools.
External link: Ships and boats for sale worldwide
[edit] Pikecrete/Pykrete Method
Please refer to materials section for explanation. Pykrete is a very potent material, but as of yet it has not been used, by any nation. Only small scale use by individuals, no nation has built anything with it.
Pikecrete can serve as an extremely strong island material, it has the same strength as concrete but it floats. It can be used to hold a foundation until a permanent location is found. Alternately, if you would like to roam, just make a mold of a vessel and then pour it onto the mold with a flat top as a foundation. It could also potentially serve as a boxing fence to pour in dirt or sand to form an island.
Advantages
Inexpensive.
Weather-resistant.
Good for short-term.
Can be applied to the entire construction from sea-bed to above-sea level.
Disadvantages
Can be expensive to maintain, cooling and cooling pipes are a must, or else it would melt. Although it would take a very long time, you don't want to ruin your new home.
Using it to construct an entire island can be expensive as a barge with dirt or other, terra-firma materials are needed and can be costly.
Production of a mold.
Subsequent freezing can be costly as well.
Note: It may be possible to use these disadvantages as advantages. It should be possible to build a vessel from pykecrete and use it to transport raw materials 'en-masse' to the site and then use them. No costly ship to return and this would also be biodegradable.
[edit] Volcano Method
Many islands have been formed as the result of undersea volcanic activity - the Hawaiian Islands are an example. A volcano is simply a point where the molten rock has squeezed through a fissure leading to the surface of the earth. If an appropriate point can be found where a volcano can be stimulated by drilling or placement of explosive on the ocean floor, a subsequent eruption may form a cone of lava that reaches above the surface of the water.
Advantages
Creates a sturdy and solid landform; weathering will eventually turn the igneous rock surface into fertile soil.
Disadvantages
Immensely expensive and disruptive to the local ecology; no technology exists to stabilize a volcano once one has been formed; location would be dictated by existing geological structures.
