Hey Geographypeeps
how are you doing? So as you know, this is 'Filler Week' which means every time we finish four episodes
we take some time off to research for the next ones
But I don't leave you hanging
I still give you some topical videos so at least you have something on this channel to watch. So today I kind of want to talk
about something. On Reddit I saw this picture
It's a hypothetical
Picture of what the world would look like if all the land and water was inverted on planet Earth. It really kind of got me
thinking how would a world like this function
It's not immediately easy to understand because you kind of have to think upside down
And you have to kind of study the oceans
topography more than the dry land. First of all the strangest thing about this planet is that all the land would be
interconnected in every single Cardinal direction.That means theoretically you could
circumnavigate the entire Globe by walking in either North to South or East to West
Avoiding every major body of water. That means the entire planet would technically only have one big major
continent with large island clusters
which are the inland Seas like the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea or the Great lakes. The
Mediterranean Sea would look like an island
but it would still be connected by that very narrow strait of Gibraltar which would now be the Gibraltar Isthmus
I guess. The Gulf of Bothnia would be like the weirdest peninsula, like, connected by a bunch of splotchy leakey isthmus
What's the plural Isthmus? When thinking like this you have to realize:
Mountains become trenches and trenches become mountains. Now in terms of land formations
You kind of have to ask yourself, are we measuring by sea level or by ocean floor level and if that's the case if we
ask by sea level than of course the Himalayas would be the deepest Trench
However if it's by ocean level, then Mauna Kea on Hawaii would be the deepest lake!?
However,
Chimborazo in Ecuador would be the Trench closest to the center of the Earth. All the islands are become lakes and all the lakes would
become islands.
Lake Baikal would probably be like one of the most remote islands on the planet. This means that Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench would
most likely be the tallest mountain, dwarfing Mt.Everest at about 36,000 feet or 11,000 meters. Bouvet Island
would be like the most remote oasis!? We would still have the same tectonic plates
but the direction of impact would have to be backwards and inverted as well, so instead of the Himalayas converging to create mountains
they would be sub-ducting to create trenches.
This means that the Ring of Fire would now become like the; 'Bowl of Desolation';
as all of the deep trenches have now become really high peaks that would barricade the Pacific Valley below.
Now here's the problem I have with the image. It doesn't accurately portray the underwater topography of our planet.
I think maybe a little bit more of an accurate depiction would be this picture by 'frans block' at 3develop.nl.
For some reason there's a large mountain range that splits right in the middle of the pacific ocean
creating a rain shadow effect with the desert in the middle of the pacific.
That wouldn't be there. The only kind of rise would be the east pacific Ridge that goes close to South America
but then it kind of cuts off. The whole area would be kind of generally flat as the oceanic trenches would be the only mountains
in the area, as all the pacific islands would be like lakes.
There's the coolest thing the longest mountain range on this theoretical planet would be the Mid-Atlantic
Range which bisects the entire planet from the Arctic to the Antarctic. The coolest thing is that this new planet would have like a triple
convergence mountain range with the Mid-Indian, Southwest and Southeast Indian ridges all smashing into one.
I don't think I agree with the amount of ice on this planet and obviously I don't believe that the new Lake of
Greenland would be all blue half of it most of it would probably still frozen underwater. Also
I hate the fact that this is a Mercator projection. I can't stand the Mercator. It's so disproportionate it
just drives me crazy!
Another interesting thing to grasp would be the concept of Continental Shelves.
At some point in our geological history the Continental Shelves were exposed and
had life on them during the Ice Ages. Over time water levels rose and concealed them
And that's why today we have offshore oil deposits. In an inverted world
I guess that would mean that the continental shelves would have been covered first and then later exposed.
Sort of like those areas in Egypt where you can find whale bones in the middle of the desert. And then you kind of have
to ask yourself, like, how would this work function and could even sustain life? We always tend to kind of err on the side of:
"Oh, well, if it has water than of course!"
But there's a lot of other things that kind of go into the mix this is where you kind of have to think scientifically.
Our planet right now is about 70% water and is able to kind of sustain a meteorological
atmosphere which allows
condensation and precipitation
of water to lands across the planet. If our planet only had 30% water would it be able to sustain that much precipitation and condensation.
I don't know!
Let's assume that all the oceans on this new planet are saline
just like our oceans, and if that was the case
then where would all the fresh water come from. Would they come from the ice caps on the tops of the mountains and if that's
the case if we can't get enough precipitation and condensation would there even be enough ice on those mountain caps?
I don't know!
Would any or all of these mountain ranges create a rain shadow effect, creating an entire
desert landscape across half of all the land?
I don't know!
It's hard to say because we can't recreate the scenario in a controlled environment because we're talking about a planet. We can't..
..recreate a planet! We can theorize and it's fun, but until then it's just kind of like brain candy.
And there's a lot of other things you have to kind of consider like; 'What would caves look like? Would they be like underwater
pocket reservoirs? And what would a sinkhole look like? would it be like an underwater land pipe?
What would the role of marshes and swamps look like? I mean what they still remain but still be a little backwards?
I mean also what would Antarctica look like? I mean it would still kind of be frozen
but what the land still be water?
And how does the ice look like? It's confusing! And let's assume that life can thrive on this planet,
'what would culture look like?' and 'how would people live and thrive in what areas and what type of
resources would they have?' I don't know what do you guys think. Let me know?
Write some stuff in the comments and debate about it, fight about it, argue about it. Troll each other about it. Geography, more like geogra.. FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!
But in the end the point is is that we live on this planet the way how it is and I kind of like it
I kind of like the way how our planet is. So that's it for now.
Thanks for joining me on this hypothetical quest. Subscribe if you want, and I hope you have a good one!