by Chris Wayan, 2006
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Mornington Sea and Scotia Basin: overview
Perhaps these should have separate pages: Scotia Basin, while only two million square kilometers, is a spectacular region and geologically hyperactive; Mornington is huge, fertile, but gentle.
Mornington Sea
Most of Siphonia's seas lie about 4 km (13,000') below the sea levels of old Earth. The Pacific Basin is the largest exception: its two main seas, the Pacific (old North Pacific) and Agassiz (south-central Pacific) are fully five km down (about 16,500'), with denser air and hotter climates. Mornington Sea, in the southeast, is an exception to the exception: the largest sea in the Pacific Basin that's only 4 km down, same as the Atlantic or African Oceans. That's still enough to warm up its climate substantially; for a sea practically licking the toes of Antarctica's glaciers, it's very mild. This mix of high latitude and low altitude leaves the basin with quite Earthlike temperatures--unlike the steamy Agassiz or Pacific. Rainfall ranges from moderate to heavy; in this region, the green on the altitude maps matches the reality on the ground: its long coasts are all solidly wooded, though the forest is arctic and thins quickly on the south shore. Think Alabama at the north end, grading slowly to Newfoundland on the south. The western shore, Menardia, is steeper, rising slowly to a winding ridge 2-3 kilometers high, broken by long deep cliffwalled valleys--fracture zones. South of the Menard zone itself lies Eltanin, with long Lake Heezen in its depths, then a twin, Tharp Valley, over a ridge to the south. A few hundred km further south is Udintsev Fracture, also with a long lake. These long cliffwalled sounds and lakes resemble fjords but are carved not by ice but by fire: the ridge is a spreading rift zone, and as it bends, cracks grow out at right angles to the rift, like cracks in a carrot that grew too fast.
The flora here may be familiar, but not the fauna. Air pressure isn't as high as in the other Pacific basins, but it's still over 50% denser than our sea level--high enough to encourage gigantism and flight in animals. In the north, megaparrots are probably the most common people, giving way to equally huge ravens in the south; giant otters are common in every port. Humans are common all round the Mornington, but the only other apes are orangutans, in the north; chimps, bonobos and gorillas haven't yet made it around the icy stratospheric wall of the Andes.
Scotia Basin
This geologically tormented region is like nothing on Earth. Except itself, I mean--hidden, in our world, under 2-3 miles of brine. Exposed, it's a basin hard to sum up in a paragraph or two.
A horseshoe of mountains surrounds it: the Grahams and Scotias in the south, the Sandwiches in the east, and the Yaghans and Georgias in the north, where Mt Paget rises nearly 7000 m (23,000') high. Even in the north, peaks much above 3 km (10,000') are icecapped, especially on south-facing slopes, and in the south, on the edge of Antarctica, some glaciers creep as low as a kilometer.
Yet the basin's climate is mild for its latitude: air pressure is 1.5 atmospheres, trapping heat. Winter snows are not severe, and summers can be warm.
A maze of narrow sounds wind through the northern half of the basin, paralleled in the south by a set of freshwater lakes. The largest, Lake Shetland, is nearly 1000 km long, as big and deep as our Lake Baikal. Conifer forests hug the lakes and sounds, fraying to alpine meadows on the heights. It's vaguely Scandinavian, but with milder winters, due to the dense air.
Here too, populations are mixed: mega-ravens, giant otters, and humans on the coasts, thinning to a purer human population in the hills.
The following route snakes around Siphonia, covering most features (under construction)
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