Re: Renaming Europe


"J. F. Cornwall" <JCornwall@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:dWUHf.3332$Nq1.981@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<snip>
Would have to postulate something like the heat source for the East
Pacific Rise extending further north than in our world, so there is a
mechanism to provide energy to heat the continental crust and turn that
world's Gulf of California into an extensional rifting zone instead.

Hmm, that would also be likely to have changed the subduction rates and
history elsewhere along the western edges. At least for the southern
"USA", not having a subduction environment would mean no recent
mountain-building episodes, so the Sierra Nevada would be more like the
Appalachians (worn-down, eroded to lower heights, no large volcanic peaks
such as Mt Lassen, etc). Volcanic mountains would tend to be smaller
cinder-cone types, or basaltic shield volcanoes (Hawaiian type). Other
ecological variations would follow from these. One of the major thoughts
on how we came to be human depends on climate changes in the East African
Rift Valley. Maybe the Western North America Rift could give rise to your
alternate ecology. :-)

What does that do to the Rockies? If it's a choice between them and the
California Channel, I'll probably keep the Rockies. I don't mind having
different mountains, and more active volcanoes would be kinda neat (and
possibly useful; they do seem like a possible environment for dragons, and
certainly a good one for salamanders and perhaps firebirds and phoenixes).

Patricia C. Wrede


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Renaming Europe
    ... I don't mind having different mountains, and more active volcanoes would be kinda neat. ... The "Basin & Range province" of the southwestern US would be unlikely to exist, or if it had developed at one time its growth would have been stunted by the development of the western rift zone. ... Instead of the friction with the Pacific plate dragging a big part of the N.A. plate northwest, the rift zone to the west would be essentially pushing the area back against the N.A. plate. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Northwest US Cascade range geology
    ... As an avid hiker living in the Seattle area, I've covered quite a bit of the ... height) with a couple three massive volcanoes here and there. ... small mountains come from? ...
    (sci.geo.geology)
  • Re: Volcano Questions
    ... The pressure is resultant of the burden above the outer core ... Not all volcanoes explode onto the surface, ... interacts with the oceanic plate. ... Garita, San Juan Mountains, etc, are all examples of humongous volcanic ...
    (sci.geo.geology)
  • Re: Volcano Questions
    ... The pressure is resultant of the burden above the outer core ... Not all volcanoes explode onto the surface, some just ooze or flow out, ... interacts with the oceanic plate. ... When playing with Google Earth, I noticed a large oval feature roughly 150mi x 250 mi, that is bounded by the Big Belt Mountains, Beaverhead and Sapphire Mountains, with long axis running from Missoula through Butte down to Yellowstone. ...
    (sci.geo.geology)
Loading