h a l f b a k e r yNot so much a thought experiment as a single neuron misfire.
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Build a huge dam at the end of the red sea. let some water evaporate thus creating a difference in height. turn on turbines, let the power flow. can also do this at the stait of Gibaltar. with a side effect which could be a good/bad idea is to extort countries with shallow ports for more money.
addition
. to the extreme we *could* walk across like Moses did, abilt with severe enviroment side effects
Tidal power
http://waterpower.h...mart.net/tidal.html [krelnik, Oct 04 2004]
largest dam ever
http://cornerhouse....s/14.sidebar_2.html [ato_de, Oct 04 2004]
Biggest dam ever
http://www.national...aphic.com/blacksea/ ...allegedly, but plausibly, was the ice bridge across the Black Sea, keeping the Mediterranean out. When it catastrophically collapsed, the theory goes, we got the flood of Gilgamesh and Noah. [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004]
Mediterranean Dead Sea canals project
http://www.mfa.gov....fa/go.asp?MFAH0mb90 Mentions an old ideas about energy from an evaporating body of water. [scad mientist, Oct 04 2004]
Panamax definition
http://www.competit...ext/468glossary.pdf What Panamax means [oneoffdave, Oct 04 2004]
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I hope this will be an Arab controlled damn and not have anything to do with the US, England, or Israel. I think if not, WWIII would be the result, and get ready to join the military if you don't believe in the consequences of completely pissing off all of the Muslims. I don't expect to live this being the case. |
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no, I would control it... then pay few muslims to look the other way by paying royalties, they control the masses and order them to distroy the competion. if not they will shrivel into human rasins |
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sp: strait, Gibraltar, albeit (?), environment, (abilt - what?) destroy, competition, raisins. |
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Either I'm stupid, or this doesn't make any sense at all (or both). |
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What are you doing up so early, [po]? I'm off to bed. |
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I think what he is getting at is tidal power, since it doesn't seem practical to the water on make one side of the dam evaporate faster than the other. Tidal power is a well baked concept, although something on the scale of Gibraltar certainly would set some records. |
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no iam not. i am blocking the flow of water from the ocean to a sea. the evaporation that occurs naurally along with no souce of incoming water would cause the sea to "dry up" and cause a height difference. |
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<font size=10000000000000000>
DAM!
</font>
Would that woik?! |
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Oh, ok I2. I think you might get more power out of a tidal dam, however. Don't know if the Red Sea is a good place for it, but Gibraltar definitely is. |
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Already the chinese are building it while simultaneously sinking whole towns and cities under the rising river-level. Some say it could even trigger earthquakes.
Now, there are some projects to build a bridge across Gibraltar (a really huge one) perhaps there's two uses for your idea. There are also sealife concerns, but like, who cares? it would look great and would amuse ETs for eons to come. |
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Interesting idea: original, most likely possible, and unlikely to be implemented. |
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I doubt that the Mediterranean would work very well, since I suspect (based on my limited knowledge of the local geography) that there are several rivers flowing into the mediteranean. I would not doubt if there was actually a net outward flow at Gibraltar. (though as [Krelnik] said, that's probably a better place for tidal energy). I would suspect that even if there were rivers going into the Red Sea, they would be entirely used for drinking water, so that seems like a likely place to make this work. I also suspect that less rain falls directly into the Red Sea than into the Mediteranean. |
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One interesting aspect of this is figuring out the right level to hold the Red Sea at. Energy production is proportional to the volume of water times the height it drops. Running with a lower Red Sea level will increase drop, but depending on how deap the sea is and how much slope the bottom has going up to the banks, lowering it too much could actually decrease the useable energy because there will be less surface area for evaporation, and therefore less volume will be able to flow. |
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The obvious problem is that the Suez Canal will need to have locks built and other ports will probably need to be retrofitted, but another major problem could be the increase in salinity. If the level of the Red Sea level is lower, water won't be exchanged with the outside ocean, it will only flow in. Since it is evaporating, the concentration of salt will increase over time. I'll leave it to someone else to estimate how long until all the fish die... |
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This is similar to an idea after the 1973 energy crisis to build a canal from the Mediterranian Sea to the Dead sea to use for energy production. See link. |
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I would suggest a different title. The interesting part of this idea is not how big the dam is. If you want a big dam, why not build one across the south of the United States between the two mountain ranges, making the midwest into a very large lake... |
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[Scad] At the Straits of Gibraltar there is a net inflow of water to the Med. Even when the tide is going "out" the current justs slows down (I don't think it actually stops). |
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The Straits have two currents at different depths that head in opposite directions. One way to harness this energy would be to install turbines that would take advantage of the deep current. Damming the straits would kill off all the maritime traffic in the area as it's so busy that lock gates through the dam would be unable to cope. Last time I sailed through there, there were over 80 vessels in a 10 mile radius. 10 or so of supertanker/aircraft carrier size, even bigger than Panamax vessels. |
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//What did the fish say when it swam into the concrete wall?// DAM! |
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What do you call a fish with no eyes? |
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<reads Rods Tiger's anno and imagines Sylvia Kristel spreadeagled across the Gibraltar Straits> |
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Actually, po is correct - a fish with four eyes would be a fiiiish. |
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//a fish with four eyes would be a fiiiish//
No, that would be a fish with 2 blind-dogs. |
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[Zimmy] What does religion have to do with dam building? |
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