Storm of the century

Well, I and my dwelling place survived Huricane Harvey and the ensuing floods that swamped Houston. I am thankful I don’t have to replace anything. I didn’t lose anything either. I am blessed.

However, Irma appears to be far worse than any other storm that hit Miami so my heart goes out to them. It’s going to be brutal and the cleanup, long.

Nevertheless, this post is more about the story universe and hurricanes affecting it than our own sadness. There is enough of that on the 24 hr news. Pick one.

First off, I discoverd on Irma’s track that the eye crossed of the Bahamain cay I chose to put Cetus gate on. Before I split Song of Betrayal in two, there was a chapter that revealed its location and was the actual intoduction to Lord Tyron Cetus, Gwen’s grandfather. This was a scene he talked to Jen about the world while examining illumi crystals (of which the workers harvest for him from the depths of the gulf.

The scene its self won’t see the light of day as the story now has changed too much. Jen is gone and the need to introduce Tyron is as well. (He was introduced in ‘Song of the Gyre’). Yet I will find a way to introduce Sal cay.

In fact, dealing with these things actually makes me act questions about weather and oceanography. Its also why I don’t have these cute things like glass jars or stone castles etc underwater. I think about how it would really work. Ask the hard questions.

So to be clear, here is a list of facts about the oceans in the Assembly world:

1. the oxygenation levels in their oceans are 3x the amount in out oceans at mininum. This higher amount allows for the same level of functionality underwater. However, the assembly members being a separate species (homo cetacea) have other abilities that allow breathing even our oceans. However in ours they wouldn’t been able to live in the sea.
2. The effect of this is there is far less bacteria and algae colonies that breathe dissolved oxygen. Instead they breath nitrogen and carbon dioxide.This means the drastically increased amount of fertilizer we use to produce ever higher crop yields does not have the same effect when that fertilizer runs off into our waterways, eventually making its way to the ocean. With nitrogen breathing algae exponentially increasing to feed on the massive delivery of food the increase of CO2 does increase the same, only the O2 doesnt deplete. This, in turn, doesn’t kill fish or create dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico
3. Basic principals of chemistry and physics dictate that colder liquid can hold more dissolved gas than a warmer liquid so the Assembly oceans match ours in that respect. Its why there first home on the surface and below was Kerguelen. Sub-antarctic islands and seamounts have more oxy dissolved. Also the cold doesn’t affect them like it does us.
4. The upper levels of the ocean are typically strongly stratified by temperature and by salinity. That is, colder, saltier water lies below the warmer, fresher water near the surface. When a hurricane comes by, it mixes everything up, resulting in a muddled and more homogeneous upper ocean. That means the surface water is cooler and saltier than it was previously was, and deeper water is warmer and less salty than it previously was. However, in very shallow coastal areas, the copious amount of fresh cold rain water from the hurricane can actually reduce the temperature and salinity of the near-surface water. While this sounds good, its not.
5. Intense hurricanes can generate 60’+ waves, and at the ocean surface, the boundary between the water and the air becomes nebulous. Amidst the formidable waves, sea spray and foam streak horizontally across the surface at high speed. Below the ocean’s surface, the currents and turbulence beneath those waves can also be quite destructive. Unlike places above the surface, the ocean doesn’t “forget” about the storm quickly. Strong currents and turbulence tend to exist up to a week after the storm passes overhead. Damaging currents can extend down to at least 300 feet below the surface, capable of dismantling coral reefs, relocating ship wrecks, breaking oil pipelines, and displacing huge volumes of sand on the seabed.

That’s why I picked the Great Barrier Reef for the capital location instead of the reefs around the Bahamas. I’ve given thought to this.

As for ‘Heartbeat Song’ I will have a few new characters, and I linked in why Red shield (rothschild, bildenberg etc) is mentioned. Chelsey’s adoptive parents is one of them and its an in joke that you might get if you are a fan of 80s shows or Scott Baio.

The others are more of me deciding to use reality to my advantage and adjust things.  This is me fleshing out Chelsey so I have no character that is just a side show if they are assembly. Its fleshing out to be a book that’s larger than than the other two approaching the size of ‘Song of Betrayal’.

That’s all I have now.  Talk soon.