Death Valley is 280 feet below sea level. You could run a tube several hundred miles from the ocean and tap the energy as the water dropped to the lower level. It would then be evaporated from the artificial lake by the temperatures that rise up to 120 degrees or more. It's also very dry there as well so the water would have no problem gassing out.

Not sure how much volume you could get replacing that evaporated water but it seems plausible.
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 26 2010

Seawater http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawater
Lots of dissolved solids. [8th of 7, Sep 26 2010]

Two Seas Canal from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia...wiki/Two_Seas_Canal
or run a search for"Dead Sea pipeline" [baconbrain, Sep 26 2010]

The Australian Sea The_20Australian_20sea
Prior art, and maths [BunsenHoneydew, Sep 28 2010]

Lake Death Valley Lake_20Death_20Valley
Even more prior art [BunsenHoneydew, Sep 28 2010]

Hmmmm, collect energy from the moving water by all means, but could the water not be turned to steam before exiting the pipe? The expansion is where the real torque would be.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 26 2010


Hey, the faster you can get rid of the water the better, whatever works.

You could also use the resultant inland sea for recreation. Nothing much would be able to live in it due to the ever increasing salinity but you might be able to do something with it for fun.
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 26 2010


What do you do with the salt ?

"every kilogram (roughly one litre by volume) of seawater has approximately 35 grams (1.2 oz) of dissolved salts "

35 kilos of salt per cubic metre of water.

<link>
-- 8th of 7, Sep 26 2010


Yea, that's a lot of salt. Harvest it I guess. Put all the salt evaporators and salt mines out of business.

Worth it? Ahdunno.
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 26 2010


There was/is a serious plan to do something like this at the Dead Sea in Israel. See Two Seas link.
-- baconbrain, Sep 26 2010


[marked-for-deletion] redundant? See [link]
-- BunsenHoneydew, Sep 28 2010


I don't know, looks like they proposed using the energy to run a desalination plant and make a fresh water lake.

Mine's a little less ambitious, just move the water, tap it's power and evaporate it.
-- doctorremulac3, Sep 28 2010



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