So if the seas have dried...

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**Corpsesarefun**

Nah I agree with whatwhat its amusing to try and put science into 40k's SCIENCE!.

**MisterMoon**

whatwhat wrote:...what's so significant about the Himalayas, the tallest mountain range from sea level, when the Andes are the highest mountain range on earth? Why build the imperial palace on the second highest mountain range? ...or on "the greatest mountain range on earth" (stated in 'The Dark King and The Lightning Tower.'), when it is not?

The Himalayas are the tallest peaks. I'm not sure how one assumes that the Andes are higher... even without the ocean. Explain.

**Corpsesarefun**

MisterMoon wrote:
whatwhat wrote:...what's so significant about the Himalayas, the tallest mountain range from sea level, when the Andes are the highest mountain range on earth? Why build the imperial palace on the second highest mountain range? ...or on "the greatest mountain range on earth" (stated in 'The Dark King and The Lightning Tower.'), when it is not?

The Himalayas are the tallest peaks. I'm not sure how one assumes that the Andes are higher... even without the ocean. Explain.

The Himalayas are the tallest peaks above sea level, the Andes are higher from the centre of the earth thus are larger and so have more space for wtfawesome palace.

**Connor McKane**

whatwhat wrote:Well wehn the year 40,000 comes I'm going to build my palace on Mount Chimbarazo and look down on the emperor and do this out the window...

I lol'd....

**Grass4hopper**

corpsesarefun wrote:
If water boils away it would need to be kept at a constant temp of over 100 degrees's c to remain as steam which is so unlikely on earths surface which I'm going to say its impossible on earths surface unless it has a super-greenhouse effect

Isn't this what Al Gore is always going on about?

**Corpsesarefun**

Grass4hopper wrote:
corpsesarefun wrote:
If water boils away it would need to be kept at a constant temp of over 100 degrees's c to remain as steam which is so unlikely on earths surface which I'm going to say its impossible on earths surface unless it has a super-greenhouse effect

Isn't this what Al Gore is always going on about?

Nah that's a runaway greenhouse effect, a super-greenhouse effect is way way worse

**Kanluwen**

whatwhat wrote:
Brother Heinrich wrote:oh GW how you amuse me, on a further point, not being to wise in the ways of science myself I have to ask, with earth pretty much a barren rock after the nuclear holocaust of the age of strife, now covered in buildings and cities, how is there even an atmosphere left? there's no trees, no oceans, nothing but buildings and factories. how does that work out for the people of terra, last I checked it wasn't cased in a biodome or anything.

Well the idea that the seas can boil and there are no oceans left on earth indicates there is no atmosphere to capture water. So yeah no or little atmosphere. That's obviously going to be a problem for breathing whatsmore the planet would be extremely hot, far to hot for life to survive. Unless you're on the opposite side of the earth from the sun of course, where it will be extremely cold.

Considering we have basically no descriptions of Terra, outside of the fact that "the entire surface is covered in the fabrications of Man"...

It's reasonably safe to assume it doesn't matter there's no atmosphere, as the place likely has an artificial atmosphere within the gigantic Hive City that Terra has become. It's not entirely unheard of for such things to exist.

**Emperors Faithful**

From a RAW point of view it only says that the seas boiled. From that we can deduce that the oceans, as they are not defined as seas (Pg 462 of the BRB), are still intact.

**Carlovonsexron**

In "Blood Games" the Mediterranean sea is dried up (or mostly dried up) and referred to as a dust bowl, though the oceans -while reduced- still exist, IIRC.

**Corpsesarefun**

The med will close up pretty soon IRL due to africa pushing north.

**purplefood**

Because, the entire surface is covered with buildings and such maybe the water is in the plumbing? I mean there are a lot of people on Terra surely they require water. And there must be some kind of basic plumbing even if it's only some kind of communal well. That's a lot of wells. A lot of plumbing. A lot of water.

**jonolikespie**

Wow, tl;dr
The REAL reason why they use the Himalayas instead of the Andes is because in 339.M22 a alien race know as the Ceptuali attempted to invade earth. After several decades of fighting they were beaten back but as a last act of defiance they leveled the Andes and the human coalition that drove them back.

*disclaimer*
please dont take this seriously, people have a habit of doing that

**chaplaingrabthar**

AgeOfEgos wrote:Shangri-La, the paradise of Earth, was situated in the Himalayas.

/Respect Bro points to lambadomy for quoting Sagan.

Except the quote was originated by Arthur C. Clarke.

**lambadomy**

Yeah, my bad...there's quite a difference between Sagan and Clarke, brain fart. I blame the mole men.

**Conservationist**

When you say the Andes are 2 miles taller than the Himalayas, does that mean it is like 12 000 metres tall? Is it not 6962 metres tall at the highest point on the Andes from sea level, Everest is almost 8900 metres tall. just thinking what made yall think Andes is the tallest, is it because it was formed on a bulge which makes it further from the core? Wondering... Maybe the palace was built before the seas have dried? Or the andes could have beeen flattened to construct the vast complexes and hives that cover Terra. Either that or the Emperor could be Tibetan.

**whatwhat**

Conservationist wrote:what made yall think Andes is the tallest, is it because it was formed on a bulge which makes it further from the core?

THis has been explained at least three times in this thread already. And yes apparantly the palace was built before the seas dried. keep up.

**Conservationist**

oh sorry man, my bad. And thanks

**asimo77**

All of these questions should be directed to your local Administratum official. Expect a thorough response within the next century.

Note that all questions are viable for screening by the Holy Inquisition for heretical leanings.

**djones520**

chaos0xomega wrote:
whatwhat wrote:If the seas didn't boil until after it was built that would make sense.

chaos0xomega wrote:I will point out that although Mount Chimbarazo is the furthest point from the center of the Earth, it is not the highest mountain in the Andes mountain range, that is Mount Aconcagua, at about 22,000 feet, which is about a mile shorter than Mount Everest (at about 29,000 feet).

This is due to the equatorial bulge created by the rotation of the earth, but is irrelevant as from the sea level perspective the Himalayas are (much) higher. The seas didn't boil away until the Siege of Terra, after the palace was built. Also, from an atmospheric standpoint, the Himalayas are still higher, as in the peak of Mt. Everest reaches higher up into the atmosphere than the peaks at Mount Chimbarazo or Aconcagua do, because like the surface, the atmosphere also bulges at this point.

But then like I said Mount Kea still dwarfs everest from base to peak and the fact that everest reaches higher into the atmosphere would be irellevant considering earths atmosphere would be almost entirely desimated if there were no oceans. Which again leads to the question how anyone could survive in said atmosphere.

Once again, the Palace was built before the oceans boiled away... and the atmosphere of Terra in 40k is described as being harsh and barely breathable. Most of Terra's full time residents live in sealed buildings with their own atmosphere/air recyclers, etc. Pilgrims and the poor, etc. usually don't last to long out on the surface.

BTW, for people that are so concerned about science, you seem to be missing the fact that boiling doesn't remove water from the Earth/atmosphere, it just changes its state from liquid to gas. All that water is still there (theoretically speaking anyway, I'm not going to try to figure out how that works), bu its not in a form that you would like it to be (as I recall its basically been turned to acid and ultra-polluted).

Getting into the science though, the only way to "boil" water away would be to break it down at the atomic level, there by ensuring it is no longer water. The atmosphere cannot hold more then 6% water vapor. It becomes saturated at that points and precipitates. If that water was still present in gaceous form, it would be raining and refilling the ocean basins. So it cannot be existing as a gas any longer. Whatever boiled it away, made it undergo a chemical change that made sure it was no longer water in any physical state.

**RedGuardian73**

Plasma was more common at this time was it not? Plasma is also incredibly hot is it not? If many massive plasma batteries were fired at Terra could they have "boiled the oceans away" only for the steam to condense and create oceans again. I also believe (this is not written anywere, but is my own personal opinion) that to keep the massive amounts of people living on Terra alive the oceans that were left after the boiling could have been used for drinking, cleaning, and manufactory things. As far as atmosphere goes there are probably numerous large scale air purifiers and atmoshperic creation machines. To those of you who say this could not be done I say this. They have to be able to terraform at least a little bit because humans live on Mars.

**BuFFo**

So, all that water got boiled away.... Where did all that mass go? Why isn't there a down pour that lasts eons going on?

**theduncan**

Because it's in the wells.

**cadbren**

I should think that the water from the seas flows around the hives and that the atmosphere is maintained by huge machines. Rain falls but is collected into the globe spanning plumbing system. There are probably small seas of water within the hives for supplying water to the citizens and industries.
As the earth became more and more covered in buildings the seas slowly boiled away and the moisture was collected for use in man-made structures.