> The ooze will be rich in nutrients and getting some of it into > suspension should help fish stocks.
Some, yes. But is there any guarantee that the right amount for water flow wouldn't be enough to make dead zones? On Jun 8, 5:02 am, Stephen Salter <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All > > The most immediately expensive effect of global warming (at least to > rich people) is rising sea levels so the Buttram proposal for moving sea > water to sub-sea deserts would help. > > However if you check the depth of the water table in the centre of the > Sahara, look at the likely porosity of the rock above it and the ratio > of areas of desert and sea you find that we could drain off at least one > and maybe two metres of sea level rise deep below the desert. The deep > water below the Sahara is already too saline for most uses and if you > are going to the trouble of installing solar powered desalination > equipment the extra salinity just means slightly more energy > consumption. People living in low-lying coastal cities could well afford > to give a personal desalination plant to every man, woman, child, camel > and goat in Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad. > > The water could flow on its own if we could reduce the flow resistance > of the path between the sea bed and the deep rock below the desert. > There is a very wide range of flow resistivity in rocks. Because of the > large flow area we should be able to get sufficiently low resistance for > many rock types. I believe that resistance is dominated by ooze on the > sea bed which has clogged the entry passages into more porous material. > All we need to do is to scrape away the right amount of ooze above the > porous rock to regulate the flow and so keep sea levels where we want them. > > A low carbon way to do remove ooze is to use wave energy to drag objects > which would look like a cross between a plough and an anchor through the > ooze. The ooze will be rich in nutrients and getting some of it into > suspension should help fish stocks. We can do some further un-clogging > with a vacuum mat laid on the sea bed. > > The first research step would be to assemble data on rock porosity and > ooze depth in likely desert and sea areas. There may even be natural > passageways formed by rock faults. Oil companies will have lots of rock > core data and might be willing to release it. Is there one with a > sufficient level of social responsibility? > > Stephen > > Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design > School of Engineering and Electronics > University of Edinburgh > Mayfield Road > Edinburgh EH9 3JL > Scotland > tel +44 131 650 5704 > fax +44 131 650 5702 > Mobile 07795 203 195 > [email protected]http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~shs > > > > Ken Caldeira wrote: > > Folks, > > > I ran across this pdf recommending the benefits of flooding sub > > sea-level desert areas. > > > I believe the author of this document (cc'd) would enjoy your comments. > > > Best, > > > Ken > > > ___________________________________________________ > > Ken Caldeira > > > Carnegie Institution Dept of Global Ecology > > 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA > > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>; [email protected] > > <mailto:[email protected]> > >http://dge.stanford.edu/DGE/CIWDGE/labs/caldeiralab > > +1 650 704 7212; fax: +1 650 462 5968 > > -- > The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in > Scotland, with registration number SC005336. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
