by Chris Wayan, 2006
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Atlantic Ocean: Overview
This is just an outline for a full tour with sketches of scenery and portraits of the creatures.
Names aren't on all the maps yet; my atlases disagree on several names. And on the coastline! Soon, I promise--I'm working on it. I have to make some judgment calls, that's all...
The Northern Riftlands
A trip down the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, now a rugged fjordland snaking nearly from pole to pole:
Azorea, including leaf-shaped Kings Lake at 45 N, the central Azore Range and its southern spur, a series of cliffwalled mesas like Atlantis, Plato, and Cruiser, ending in Cape Meteor. The mountainous mainland, dissected by steep fjords, runs southeast as far as 23 north.
Then comes Atlantis--a rugged hot island the size of Borneo, running down to 12 north.
The Kane Is., nearly the size of Britain, from 5-12 north.
The huge Isle of Vema--straddling the equator. Steamier than anywhere on our Earth. Just to the south is Romanche Strait...
Atlantic Ocean: Northwest
Great forested valleys lead down to Newfoundland Bay: Labrador Valley in the west, Irminger/Imarssuak Valley in the east. Two new Germanies? Englands?
On the east coast of Newfoundland Bay: The Gloria Hills, the Gibbs Lakes, Maxwell Sound, steep Scout Island, Cape Altair. Endless fracture-fjords, down to the equator...
On the west coast: the fjords from Mt Dana to Flemish Plateau, the St. Lawrence River, Cape Newfoundland, and then the long Hatteras coast down to Lake Blake at 29 north.
Bermuda, now two tall rugged islands, and the New England Is. and the Corner Islands--forming a transatlantic flyway for intelligent parrots and ravens. All are tropical, though the Corners and New Englands run well north: the dense air traps heat.
the Hatteras and Nares Seas
Kane Strait and its sisters--a shattered zone, with jungle cliffs like Na Pali (though for different geological reasons).
long steamy Ceara Island and the Ceara Strait to the south seas.
Atlantic Ocean: Northeast
Subarctic/cool-temperate valleys running down to the Porcupine Sea: from west to east, Gardar Valley, the Holton Range, Maury Valley, the Rockall Range and Rockall Valley. At the head of the Porcupine Sea: Edoras and the East Thulian Hills, Rockall Bay, the Porcupine Hills.
Down the east coast: the Goban Spur, the Celtic River, the Dover River and Biscay Bay.
Around 45 north: the Charcot Islands and the New Azores leading to the mountainous west shore of the sea, with Kings Lake and the Meteor Range.
Back east, below the Iberian Plateau: the Galicia Islands sheltering Tagus Bay, the Horseshoe Peninsula cupping Ampere Bay/Vincent Bay and Canary Bay; forming a twisted maze of seas and narrow mountainous lands hotter and wetter than the old Indonesia. Like the twisted ridges in the Mediterranean to the east, this tortured land is the exposed wreckage of the crushed Tethys Sea.
Cape Canary, with ice-capped peaks up to 7700 m (25,000') (which I've forgotten to add to the map so far) looming over hot lowlands
Cape Verde--another cool highland, probably small glaciers on Fogo despite being closer to the equator
Huge Leone Island--mild uplands, a triple-sized Sri Lanka! This coast will be hotter than our equatorial jungles.
The Southern Riftlands
On the equator: spectacular Romanche Strait, one of the hemisphere's deepest trenches. Rugged, waterfall-streaked jungle cliffs.
Helenia: to 23 south, bigger than Old Greenland; the 2nd largest island on Siphonia, after Great Hawaii. All of it's rugged and much of it's high enough to be merely hot, not a total steambath. Like the New Guinea uplands times ten? But warmer.
Tristania: 23-60 south! Truly continental in size, though linked to the mainland in the southwest, via the Orcadia Neck, and possibly by Cape Walvis and/or the long ridges south of the Hope Sea... Tristania is hot in the north, mild in the south. Some relatively dry Californian climate on its west coast--but California with occasional hurricanes.
Orcadia--in our world called the American-Antarctic Ridge. Still mild. Does it have a strait to the African Ocean? If not a canal is probably diggable; less than 100 km through a valley barely above the new sea level.
Atlantic Ocean: Southeast
The Guinea Sea--due to increased air pressure these equatorial shores are effectively 2 km below/hotter than our equatorial rainforest. Welcome to the Carboniferous!
The Cameroon Mountains, up to 8 km tall (26,000')--snowcapped above some of the hottest jungles on Siphonia. That'll make for some weird weather! The Cameroons form a peninsula pointing south into...
The Angola Sea
Rugged Cape Walvis and narrow Wüst Strait--if it exists. It's right at the postulated sea level, and very narrow. I'm inclined to think the copious rains of the Atlantic Deep will cause it to spill over this low sill, even if no channel exists. And if not, some enterprising species will dig a canal. It wouldn't be hard; low ground and soft sediment.
Does it matter? Oh, yes. Having such straits would link the Atlantic and African Oceans into by far the largest surviving ocean in the world, allowing sea-trade from New Zealand to Labrador. It'd have huge cultural effects. The Pacific Basin would have a shipping disadvantage that'd almost certainly translate into slower cultural development.
Where does the Atlantic end, then, and where does the African Ocean begin? I'm inclined to think the Hope Sea to the south, through the Wüst Strait/Canal really belongs to the African Ocean. Originally I though the ridge along its south shore was continuous, so the Hope Sea was only connected to the Atlantic; but I now suspect this southern ridge is just long islands with straits between the Wyandot, Herdman, Discovery and Meteor Ranges.
The bathymetric maps I've consulted disagree so much on this area that I'm holding back on describing it in much detail yet. For now, I've put the Hope Sea and a tentative close-up map on the African Ocean page.
Atlantic Ocean: Southwest
The Pernambuco Sea. A sauna. Rain measured in meters and daytime temperatures averaging over 40 C (104 F). Worse yet, the dense damp air means it doesn't cool off much at night. Very few humans live here, in the heat and damp and gloom. Intelligent life abounds, though, in the treetops: giant parrots, otters, and bonobos, chimps and gorillas, all lanky, long-limbed, slender and short-haired for heat dispersal.
Romanche Gap--the deep strait to the eastern Atlantic. Spectacular jungle cliffs, miles high.
Cape Santos and the huge Rio Islands, nearly as big as Madagascar. Further south now, out of the tropics. Here it's merely as hot as our equatorial zone.
Argent Sea and tilde-shaped Zapiola Bank--vast coral reefs? Yes, coral past 50 south; the higher air pressure retains that much heat! It's subtropical or warm-temperate.
Islas Orcadas, then the Sandwich Isles--much more rugged, with icecapped peaks above mild temperate shores.
Falkland Escarpment--a spectacular line of cliffs from 1.5 to 2.5 km high (5-8000') rising from the southern end of the Atlantic. The plateau above them is mostly alpine meadows but there are some conifer woods and no glaciers. Really, it's surprisingly mild for an upland so far south--that high air pressure again. The gap into Georgia Sound, like a scaled-up Inland Passage--dense forests below icy peaks up to 6 km (20,000') above the new sea level.
The Orcada Sea and Meteor Deep. At the south end of Meteor, there may be a strait south into the African Ocean--the bathymetry here is borderline. If not, it's a very low valley--a canal would be diggable. It'd link half the scattered seas of Siphonia, with all that implies... But it may not be needed if the Wüst Strait exists to the northeast--or there isn't, but the easterners dig the Wüst Canal first.
The following route snakes around Siphonia, covering most features (under construction)
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