A Very Deep Valley: How Weird a Climate Can I Get?

[S'mon]

Maybe it's just really cold everywhere except in the valley. If there was less atmosphere than Earth, a 4 mile deep canyon might be the only hospitable place. I think there was a Larry Niven novel w/a planet like that.

The classic example is The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson ca 1910, where the sun has died but the ca 100 mile deep rift valley is still habitably warm...

 

[Ironclad]

Here in Australia, a 300 million year old species called the Wollemi Pine was discovered about 10 years ago in a valley, accessable only by rapelling down to a very sheltered area. It is pretty remarkable considering Australia has undergone fairly dramatic climate changes over even the last 50 million years.

My suggestion is that a deep valley would be quite cold without the effects of direct sunlight. It may also hold some species thought to be extinct or lost to the realm of SCIENCE!! I like the "Lost World" idea.... long periods of isolation... stable environment... minimal "evolution"....instant living fossil.

 

[Romnipotent]

Magic stone controls weather!
Grog kill all who try to take stone!
Grog smash poopy stone stealers with weather control stone! It only make it rain then.


This catgirl saving message was brought to you by Romnipotent

 

[diaglo]

have you ever visited Bryce Canyon, http://www.nps.gov/brca/ ?

not exactly the scale you want but it has some really cool weather and ideas.

diaglo "who camped there in 86" Ooi

 

[MonsterMash]

What a lot of good info in one thread. Thanks, this has given me inspiration even if Wayne hasn't got what he was looking for.

 

[Lazerel]

Just some thoughts for the wildlife down there.
There is an interesting side effect of the increase in partial pressure described in other posts and that is in the forms of life that might exist down in the valley. As a justification for giant insect like species it would be very useful, as normally the limiter of size for such species is the efficiency of their respiratory systems. A greater partial pressure would lead to the potential for larger species of all types, and could include things like plants with much thicker leaves, as they would actually need to LIMIT respiration and water loss (unless the atmosphere is humid) and also the thicker leaves would be less combustible then lighter foliage.

 

[WayneLigon]

Thanks everyone! Yeah, I had thought about Canyon (Niven's planet where the only breathable atmosphere is at the bottom of miles-deep fissures) and that was what got me to thinking about this. I was also going to use the 'collapsed supervolcano caldera' idea as the basic justification for such a massive area.

I was wondering about the air pressure idea for one reason: this is going to be part of an Iron Heroes world I'm building and as part of the fun I was going to use more 'real world' limitations on things. A very warm area despite the bitter cold surroundings with much increased air pressure would give me an area where repillian dragon-like things would live and be able to fly despite their large size (not nearly as large a most D&D dragons but still larger than any Terran creature). The world is going to be generally 'colder' and much drier than Earth so this would be the only consistantly warm area in the explored region. Most of the world will simply be a blank to them.

I may still go with that, or just do a more conventional cold (Mongolian-style) desert - not put it nearly as deep as I'd said, use the idea of a thin layer of mist on the ground, litter it with large stone formations and call it The Sea of Stones.

 

[iwatt]

I may still go with that, or just do a more conventional cold (Mongolian-style) desert - not put it nearly as deep as I'd said, use the idea of a thin layer of mist on the ground, litter it with large stone formations and call it The Sea of Stones.

Which actually is the most important part of world building: cool sounding names

So in that vein, what would you call your dragon valley?

 

[WayneLigon]

So in that vein, what would you call your dragon valley?

Something pretty and innoculous, since most of the explorers would just come out of the pass and see the top of this serene white cloud layer stretching off as far as they could see. They'd probably think they'd come to the end of the world and just turn back, counting themselves lucky they stopped in him. The pass might get a special name, like The Gate of Dawn.

People who went down into the mist would probably just call the place 'Aauuuuugghhhhhh!'

Man, I'm really liking both ideas now

 

[iwatt]

Something pretty and innoculous, since most of the explorers would just come out of the pass and see the top of this serene white cloud layer stretching off as far as they could see. They'd probably think they'd come to the end of the world and just turn back, counting themselves lucky they stopped in him. The pass might get a special name, like The Gate of Dawn.

People who went down into the mist would probably just call the place 'Aauuuuugghhhhhh!'

Man, I'm really liking both ideas now

No reason not to have both then

By the way, I like "The Gate of Dawn". They'll probably walk in expecting bunnies