New land mass...wouldnt it be great.

So I was thinking.

How great would it be if a new land mass emerged from the ocean.

Imagine if there was a texas size or bigger land mass that just emerged from the pacific ocean.

Whats more imagine that enough people flocked there and claimed it as a new sovereign nation.

How would other countries react if a new country was created?

I know it would take a very long time for foliage and other bio diversity to emerge...but

what if those things were brought there by potential new citizens?

I have elaborated on this fantasy a little.

Several super cruise ships are diverted because of a storm. They are all stationed near the newly forming land mass.

When it emerges they all flock to it and land on it. The storm lasts longer than expected and their ships are crippled, forcing them to abandon them and remain on the new land mass.

They see it is considerably large and consider staying...since....it is full of precious metals and stones, meteorites worth billions, and many wreckages of long lost vessels filled with all sorts of now precious cargos worth billions themselves. In other words it is filthy rich.

They get the bright idea of using the combined trillions to build a new nation where they are standing.

Once the storm passes and their respective countries try to repatriate them, they refuse.

They immediately start buying up building supplies, seeds, and other necessities for colonization.

Whats more, the worlds disenfranchised citizens flock there to join the newly formed fledgling nation...giving them professionals and tradesmen of all types.

Other countries try to lay claim to it, but those inhabiting it refuse and make an international case for their sovereignty.

They win, and establish the youngest country on earth. The mineral wealth and combined donations by new citizens make this fledgling nation flourish within 10 years.

After 50 the entire land mass has dense forests and all sorts of animals. A man made ecosystem if born...

This nation tells the world to butt out and practices political isolationism. They export 20 times what they import once they establish healthy industries and trade with countries that respect their sovereignty.

They do not deal with the UN, nor its affiliates. They remain independent of the world banking and financial system.

Soon they are the envy of the world....and the world rots around them..and they live happily ever after.

The end...

EDIT:

Oh, they call it Pacifica...

reply to post by tadaman


Count me in. If I can grow anything I want that is. But I'm sure a nation like that will be very openminded about there rights.

Have you seen the Superman movie with Kevin Spacey as Lex Luther?

He tried to use Kryptonian tech to raise the seafloor. It didn't end well

It's a cool idea, but I think undersea colonies would be awesome too!

reply to post by tadaman


We've already got that, sorta. It's called The Moon.

The mineral resources in Hydrogen 3 alone is worth enough to probably buy the whole planet Earth in cash, and that doesn't take into account all the other more typical mineral and element resources, as well as other advantages like easier access to the rest of the solar system.

Problem is, like any island, getting there, taking enough with you, and, like your island, cultivating a survivable, sustainable environment.

You should watch Laurel and Hardy's Utopia! Honestly, you'd love how what happens. . .just see if you can find it.

reply to post by tadaman


If a land mass the size of texas popped up out of the pacific ocean, we would have huge tsunami's on the western coast of north america and the eastern coast of asia, as well as many pacific islands....

Just throwing that out first.

Secondly this land mass would likely be volcanic in nature, which would lead to a few types of rock. Some of which may contain sulphur, hydrogen and other chemicals that could prevent or hinder life from developing for a while. Either way this land will likely be mostly rock and we would need soil to grow anything, with out the enormously labor and time consuming task of shipping it in via boat the land would not grow anything. Even adding soil, may not allow for plant growth as the aforementioned substances would kill anything you tried to grow in the soil brought to the new land mass.

No soil, no plants. No plants, no people or livestock.

The second major problem that would arise would be fresh water. What good is a barren piece of bed rock, that maybe you could start building garden box farms with shipped in soil if you have no water to drink or feed your crops. The only available water would be from the ocean and with it's salt content it would likely lead to devastating crop failure as the dissolved salts and minerals built up in the very small amount of soil to farm with.

Aside from that what source of water would the people drink? Any rain that fell on the fresh volcanic rock would pick up harmful chemicals and metal. Volcanic sulfur and water = sulfuric acid, bad to drink, bad to touch, and bad for crops.

Any thermal vents in the area would also release poisonous volcanic gasses that could wipe out anyone over the entire land mass as the terrain would likely allow for it to be blown all over in ocean breezes. Not to mention such a disturbance on the ocean floor would likely release Natural gas(methane) from the porous ocean sediment.


All this aside, I don't know. A land mass that large would be hard to be immediately dominated by one group of people alone, and would likely be a prize item for many existing nations. How would said sovreign group defend fresh land from those with more resources and power than them.

reply to post by Hijinx


1. It would not be volcanic. A yet unknown process of tectonic shifts would force already formed crust upward. Maybe a whole tectonic plate cracks and forms convergent boundaries around a center piece, where due to the stress on the crust, a whole piece is uplifted as others sink. MAYBE california sinks into the ocean and as a result, forces up Pacifica by it subducting into the depths of the earth...

2. The Australian navy and China would defend Pacifica until it could form its own defences in exchange for free passage into pacifica and lucrative trade deals in their favor.

3. Fresh water would eventually form from the water cycle exerting itself over such a large land mass. There are many types of water purification methods and with unlimited resources anything is possible...ask a sheik.

Soil would be shipped in as you suggest for the initial colony. Agricultural engineers would be brought in and eventually nature would take its course.

and

its my fantasy....get your own to try to ruin..

LOL JK...

reply to post by tadaman


If folks think that the tyrannical globalist control freaks would ALLOW such a thing . . . they don't have good reality testing about the globalist oligarchy.

And that's assuming that all the other fantastic fantasy aspects of the scenario came magically true.

But it's a nice fantasy.

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite


I agree, we should strive to colonize the moon. It's in the human nature to want to explore, and follow "resources".

If it wasn't for our ancestors following herds, we wouldn't have made it out of Africa, and if it wasn't for Siberian peoples following migrations; Native Americans wouldn't have crossed the Bering Straight into North America.

I think the real value in space colonization isn't because it will take the load off of Earth -- but rather teach us more about ourselves as a species. Humans are incredibly adaptable, more so than I think we currently realize.

I hope I live long enough to met "Mars People" and "Moon People" in their respective colonies. Humans tend to be motivated by reward. If there's enough of a reward, humans seem willing to risk everything for it.

reply to post by tadaman


Alright, just for the sake of debate

1. Such an uplift of the sea floor would disturb both natural gas and fossil oil out of the surrounding sea bed, killing off ocean life for miles in all directions, as well as rendering potential dead zones on the island itself. There are some enormous stores of natural gas trapped in the crust that would have risen out of the sea floor. For instance off the coast of russia, disturbances both in permafrost and the sea bed are releasing millions of liters of natural gas into the atmosphere. Think of this now on a scale the size of texas.

2. Australia and china are not exactly allies, although I could believe the potential for them to want to protect said land mass, it would likely be out of personal interest. Not to mention the US, as well as other Pacific nations. The sea bed is rich in valuable minerals as well as natural gas and fossil oil. This new land mass could hold unknown amounts of gold, titanium, silver, iron, diamonds, copper, as well as rare earth metals which are incredibly hot in todays resource market. The sea floor has a very small layer of overburden making the process of extracting these substances absolutely preferable over any other deep earth mining. The current issue with this is the miles of ocean on top of them, removing that water creates a valuable piece of land.

3. Again, this is sea floor we are talking about. Any sediment and soil on this land would contain extremely high levels of salt as well as other minerals which would take years to dilute and wash away before "fresh" water could accumulate on the surface of said land. Again we are troubled with the task of bringing soil for things to grow. The material on top of the sea crust would likely be sand and other ocean sediment unsuitable for growth of produce as we know it. Some vegetation may grow, but as far as holding any nutritional value for people or livestock it would be incredibly trying. Starchy goods are the staple of both human and livestock diets, aside from grass and other hearty tropical vegetation(not always good for people or livestock but some can be eaten with a lot of work.) food would be scarce.

Where would the unlimited resources come from? The land would likely not grow anything aside from some grass species and maybe palm species. The soil would be thin, mostly sandy, highly alkaline and salty. Not to many plants or trees grow in this, and palm trees don't exactly have a remarkable growth rate to provide wood to sustain a large number of people. Most of the resources would have to be brought to the island the main resources would be minerals and fossil fuels. The deep ocean floor differs incredibly from that of the shore line. The majority of heavy mineral and saline deposits are found at the mouth of rivers where they are dumped by currents or the deeper depths in the ocean where there is less disturbance.

The land would not be immediately useable, and would likely be claimed long before a solid crop could grow.

I do not doubt humans would settle this land if it was stable. Such a tectonic event may be que to future events, as well new fault zones around the land mass itself It could disappear as quickly as it formed.

How would you provide enough fresh water for a population, their crops and live stock. If you are relying on rain water as a source on a salt/mineral bed?

How would the population fend of rich powerful nations after the new raw resources?

What natural resources could you extract from a land that will grow nothing from many years to come to start homes, industry?

Where will the money to extract any minerals come from? Food? Water? medicine? protection?

I just can't see a new nation starting from nothing happening. It would likely become china as they would simply take it. They would pour endless money into it, and care nothing at all about any practices used to extract rare earth minerals, gold, silver, titanium, diamonds, etc.

I'm simply bringing very valid points to the table. This would be an absolutely enormous undertaking. Starting a brand new nation would cost pretty much what the current US debt is, and it may not survive.

If the Republic of Minerva is an indicator of what happens then, some country will step up and claim it as their's. Unless the new settlers are willing to duke it out then it'll be the same ol' same ol'.

I've been waiting for this to happen for ages and the second it does happen I am so there! I've always wanted to either be a part of a brand new country or to build my own country from scratch. We need something new like this in the world to spice things up.

a reply to: tadaman

I always thought something similar to this. The Pacific Ocean is very lacking. What if there already is a super land mass there? And there is a society there that is so advanced (of course, Giorgios would call them "aliens"), they tell any visitors not to reveal. It would be a massive conspiracy, but it is not out-of-the-realm of reality. Governments are notorious for withholding information from the public. Not to mention, if the sheep knew that there was something more to reality, they would be all that much harder to control and dominate, and that is, after all, the white man's way, to dominate and control.