INTRODUCTION

This is a page under construction describing Atlantis, the largest continent on the Atlantic Rise on Abyssia--the upside-down equivalent of our Atlantic Basin. Atlantis is a tropical-to-temperate land about half the size of Europe or the USA. Its shores, especially in the east, are jagged fracture zones--an endless procession of cliffy heads, deep sounds, islands and shoals, all perpendicular to the deep rift zone offshore separating Atlantis from Azorea, the smaller eastern continent.

COASTLINES AND NAMES

Much of the sea floor, even today, isn't well mapped, and shorelines on Abyssia are correspondingly uncertain. But our North Atlantic has had heavy shipping and study over the last century or five... Also, the Atlantic Rift between the twin continents creates jagged fracture zones. The result? I'm more confident of Atlantis's topography than most parts of Abyssia.

Names are based on local seamounts, trenches, fracture zones and abyssal plains. Some are inevitable, like Atlantis; some involved choice. For example, one of the two continents in the northern Atlantic has to be called Atlantis of course; but which? I chose the larger western one, mainly because four abyssal plains fuse to form it and if it's not Atlantis I'd have to decide between Nares, Sohm, Hatteras or Sargassia. I think it'll be Atlantis in the west, Azorea in the east. Judgment calls, yes--but none of the names are fantasy or purely arbitrary.

We tend to think of the abyss as a featureless muddy plain. The truth is that every new sonar sweep reveals more complexity; it's quite rugged down there. The parallel fjordlike bays serrating so many Abyssian coasts are the result of huge fracture zones. The photo below shows Azorea on the left, Atlantis on the right, with the Atlantic Deep snaking between them. (Spain's in the upper right, the Caribbean in the lower left). Lacy, crazy coasts like these repeat all over Abyssia--you can see why I've been slow to finish the relief and painting of this globe!

HOLES

Our sea-floor's peppered with volcanoes, far more than anyone expected. These are a bit of an scientific and esthetic problem on Abyssia--what's the tectonic explanation for all those conical pits? Abyssian geology would madden any Terran--but it's worth noting the reverse is true, too. Why not an active mantle with a lot of puckers where crust is crunched in a "downdraft", a world with rifts that pull inward instead of spreading? This isn't theoretical: puckers like this can be found on Venus ("inward" coronae), and the hottest convection system of all has lots of them: we call them sunspots. No volcanic cones on the sun!

Abyssia doesn't spew, it just sucks.

Anyway, the most prominent example of these "puckerlakes" on Atlantis is in the northwest, around New England Sound. The "blue holes" in the sound and the equally deep lakes north of it are the inverted equivalent of Earth's New England Seamount Chain. To the south is the even deeper blue hole of Bermuda Bay. Here's a close-up of the region...

Deserts are rare on Abyssia except for southwest Pacifica. So much of the sparse land elsewhere is maritime, and most mountains are too low to cast significant rainshadows. But Atlantis is an exception. The fourth largest continent, and perhaps the most continental of all (almost Earthlike in its compactness and continuity) Atlantis has enough inland inland to develop a true desert in the southwest, much like our North America does at a similar latitude. Winds here tend to come from inland much of the year, off the Nares Mountains to the northeast, or the towering, snowy Puerto Rico Range to the south, the highest in this hemisphere. Mt Milwaukee is around 3900 meters (12,800').

Yes, I meant it--that's the highest peak for thousands of kilometers. Respectable, but just a speedbump next to the Andes or Himalaya. Abyssia's land isn't just smaller in area than Earth; it's mostly low.

In summer here the desert heat creates a local monsoon, drawing thunderstorms over the plains. These can be locally torrential but are inconsistent and brief overall. Rains in winter are sparse and rare except along the coast south of the Puerto Ricos.

EASTERN FJORDS

All in good time, my pretty, all in good time! I did say this page was under construction...

The following route snakes around Abyssia's major lands; italicized names have no pages yet.

the Lena Is. (brr!) - the Greek Is. - Atlantis -- Azorea -- Nazca and Chilea -- Morningtonia -- Agassiz -- South Pacifica -- East Pacifica -- Hawaiian Sea -- Pacifica Desert -- Filipinia -- Vanuatu and Banda Is. -- Tasman Is. -- Diamantina Pen. -- Whartonia -- Chagosia -- Somalia -- Mascarenia -- Crozetia -- Weddellia -- Argenta -- Pernambuco -- Angolia -- Tristania -- Agulhas -- Natalia --

Abyssia's homepage - map - (don't click yet) peoples of Abyssia - (don't click yet) Abyssia's evolution - regional tours - (don't click yet) Gazetteer

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