h a l f b a k e r yLeft for Bread
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Imagine a big stationary floating platform. Floating merrily
above one of the deeper regions of ocean. Large, garbage-
filled barges are docking all around, while a very large
wheel turns overhead. The wheel supports many
killometers of steel cable running all the way down to a
frankly daft
depth. On the floating platform, barge loads of
garbage are unloaded onto a very large bag, lying flat on
the deck. Eventually, when the pile gets high enough, the
sides of the bag are lifted and all nicely tied up at the top
with a vacuum tube added (this is super-thick wall
stainless, tiny lumen) and hooked up to the cable. Then
off it goes. Down to Davy-Jones locker. It's moving
slowly... 'cause it doesn't need to move fast. As it's
dragged deeper, the pressues increase, squeezing gasses
and liquids into the vacuum tube. Down it goes to embrace
pressures of 10,000psi or more. Crunching our waste to a
tiny fraction of it's original volume. Then, it comes back
up. It's loaded onto one of the barges, and the cycle
continues.
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Annotation:
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Why bring it back up? It has to go somewhere. |
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Because then it can go somewhere smaller, or in greater
quantities per equivalent volume. |
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Anyway, if we left it down in the sea trenches, James
Cameron would complain, and then I'd have to go punch
him in the nose, because I can't stand hearing really rich
people complain about stuff (Lord Buchanan excepted,
naturally). |
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If you find a sea trench that is "subducting", you should be able to get rid of the garbage for several million years (the time it takes for gelogical subduction to carry stuff to where it can be volcanically spewed). The people who find that trash will, of course, be mightily surprised! |
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Vernon- Make it hundreds of millions of years. James Cameron would still be upset. |
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This is the best way to get rid of nucular waste too, of course. Early on, environmentalist wackos killed that idea. |
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Using subduction zones to dispose and destroy the detritus of civilization was a major theme in David Brin's book Heaven's Reach in his Uplift Series. Everything put there goes down and becomes melted into magma. It is all a matter of timescales. |
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//Then, it comes back up. It's loaded onto one of the barges, and the cycle continues.// |
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Tell me how it comes back up after undergoing 10,000 or more psi and I'll float you a bun. |
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I'm currently re-engineering a machine that will test
large pipes, (say 40") up to 7500psi. Most of the
smaller fittings on the water side go up to 10,000psi.
All to guarantee safe delivery of oil and gas to your
countries, ladies and gentlemen. |
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We don't need no steenking trench... |
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The Tonga trench is the 2nd deepest and very fast at 24cm/year - easily the best choice for dumping everything in the pacific. |
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Preheated, David Brin, building civilizations on the edge of tectonic plates so that by the time the alien scout ship comes by a million years later evidence of your presence has been hidden ;-) |
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