Screenshot Analysis

[KevinLancaster]

One word: Aliens.

I guess this planet's going to be like KSP Minmus.

 

[Lord Tirian]

Or, given there are possibly alien ruins, something has changed recently. Perhaps the craters are the result of their great mistake. (It's not "Aliens did it!" if it's actually anchored in the rest of the backstory)

 

[GeoModder]

The canyons look a bit weird, because they're below sea level, they're right next to the ocean and to craters that are filled with water, and yet somehow the canyons are not filled with water. We have similar features on Earth; they are called "lakes."

Well, we can't see to the bottom of those canyons, so who's to say there isn't water in them?

 

[KevinLancaster]

Yeah but they're next to the sea.

Maybe it's like New Orleans.

 

[Securion]

Well, we can't see to the bottom of those canyons, so who's to say there isn't water in them?

You mean gravity stops working when the canyons are half full?
That would make perfect sense.

 

[GeoModder]

So? If geology is correct, the Mediterranean had for the longest time a whole lower 'sealevel' then the Atlantic just across a back then existing barrier that is now Gibraltar Strait.
Or take the Black Sea basin. It is thought that at some point the Mediterranean finally flooded the Dardanelles and thus filled up the basin.
There's plenty of places on Earth where sealevel is above some inland feature. To name one, the valley/rift going from Lake Tiberias to the Dead Sea.

 

[KevinLancaster]

Yeah but the Med was dry, so your suggestion that the canyon is half full when it is next to the ocean is a bit weird, unless they are half full from surface runoff, but the planet seems lush so why aren't they more full?

(Replace with half empty if pessimistic.)

 

[TLHeart]

the salton sea in california is below sea level, and in civ distances, right next to the ocean. Death valley, just a short distance away is even further below sea level...

so canyons next to a sea, with out water, does happen

 

[GeoModder]

Yeah but the Med was dry, so your suggestion that the canyon is half full when it is next to the ocean is a bit weird, unless they are half full from surface runoff, but the planet seems lush so why aren't they more full?

I'm not the one talking about 'half-filled' canyons.
The Great Canyon isn't 'half-filled' with river water either. And yes, I do know its way above sealevel.

Simply put, local circumstances can keep the water level below the greater sealevel of a planet.

 

[KevinLancaster]

Sorry, got you confused with Securion.

When you think about it, does it really matter if they are full or not?

Also, doesn't water flow downhill so it would be weird for river canyons to form with no visible watershed, unless it's flowing backwards? Gravity? Eh? (I don't know where I am going with this.)

 

[GeoModder]

Not going very far, I think.
Anyway, there may be plenty of porous rock at the bottom of those canyons, or they're the result of earthquake cracks in the mantle. Whatever, they're there. They look cool, and IMO may stay.

 

[Rebel Fighter]

If we were really going to be realistic, every single planet could be no larger than Earth because a planet must be about the size of Earth to sustain a livable atmosphere. Mars was just a bit too small and all its water dried up. Anything bigger than Earth would most likely sustain an atmosphere, but one that is hostile to life.

 

[Lord Tirian]

If we were really going to be realistic, every single planet could be no larger than Earth because a planet must be about the size of Earth to sustain a livable atmosphere. Mars was just a bit too small and all its water dried up. Anything bigger than Earth would most likely sustain an atmosphere, but one that is hostile to life.

Nobody said the planet is going to have a breathable atmosphere... it's a lonely and hostile environment after all. For earth life, at least. After all, all three affinities would have a preferred way to deal with a hostile atmosphere: Purity terraforms, Supremacy uses tech, Harmony adapts itself.

Perhaps there's a reason why the worms seem to live underground.

 

[Rebel Fighter]

Nobody said the planet is going to have a breathable atmosphere... it's a lonely and hostile environment after all. For earth life, at least. After all, all three affinities would have a preferred way to deal with a hostile atmosphere: Purity terraforms, Supremacy uses tech, Harmony adapts itself.

Perhaps there's a reason why the worms seem to live underground.

Well, then how do the life forms respirate? Clearly we are seeing creatures more complex than single-celled organisms. We've seen human-sized arachnid-like creatures and even a giant worm living on this alien world. The environment may not be as serene as Earth's, but if the aliens don't breathe oxygen, they must still breathe something. It's basic biology.

 

[KevinLancaster]

Silicon-based life? Are the seas ammonia?

 

[True_Candyman]

Well, then how do the life forms respirate? Clearly we are seeing creatures more complex than single-celled organisms. We've seen human-sized arachnid-like creatures and even a giant worm living on this alien world. The environment may not be as serene as Earth's, but if the aliens don't breathe oxygen, they must still breathe something. It's basic biology.

Not all lifeforms on earth respire. There are plenty of methods of drawing in desirable nutrients and such.

Could be they have absorptive membranes in their feet and live in nitrogen rich swamps, sucking in lovely nutrients through their toes to fuel themselves using reactive nitric acid instead of oxygen.

Disclaimer: I don't really know much about biology

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Well, then how do the life forms respirate? Clearly we are seeing creatures more complex than single-celled organisms. We've seen human-sized arachnid-like creatures and even a giant worm living on this alien world. The environment may not be as serene as Earth's, but if the aliens don't breathe oxygen, they must still breathe something. It's basic biology.

A large planet would not lack oxygen (assuming it had life to make the oxygen)

Also, as mentioned there are some possible alternatives to oxygen (NOx/ SOx)


I agree a world with a size 100 x Earth would not have an oxygen in the atmosphere because it would become a gas giant.... But one 2x 5x or 10x Earth is probably fine (for whatever life evolves there)

 

[Rebel Fighter]

Silicon-based life? Are the seas ammonia?

Although I like the reference, Nitrogen-based life would probably be more plausible.

Not all lifeforms on earth respire. There are plenty of methods of drawing in desirable nutrients and such.

Could be they have absorptive membranes in their feet and live in nitrogen rich swamps, sucking in lovely nutrients through their toes to fuel themselves using reactive nitric acid instead of oxygen.

Disclaimer: I don't really know much about biology

Yes, not all of them breathe, but all the COMPLEX ones do.

A large planet would not lack oxygen (assuming it had life to make the oxygen)

Also, as mentioned there are some possible alternatives to oxygen (NOx/ SOx)


I agree a world with a size 100 x Earth would not have an oxygen in the atmosphere because it would become a gas giant.... But one 2x 5x or 10x Earth is probably fine (for whatever life evolves there)

A large planet may not lack oxygen (many planets have a small amount of oxygen), but it would lack a life-sustaining atmosphere.

EDIT: The planets don't necessarily have to sustain life as man's purpose is to terraform it. However, there couldn't be any realistic alien life if this was the case. Seeing as how Firaxis wants aliens as numerous as barbarians, I doubt there will be a world without them, hence what I said about the requirements for a life-sustaining atmosphere.

 

[AriochIV]

the salton sea in california is below sea level, and in civ distances, right next to the ocean. Death valley, just a short distance away is even further below sea level... so canyons next to a sea, with out water, does happen

Death Valley is three hundred miles from the coast, and separated from it by several large mountain ranges. And it's nowhere near as deep as these canyons appear to be.

Not going very far, I think.
Anyway, there may be plenty of porous rock at the bottom of those canyons, or they're the result of earthquake cracks in the mantle.

They're right next to the ocean; if the rock was porous, the canyons would be flooded with subterranean water seeping in from the ocean.

Whatever, they're there. They look cool, and IMO may stay.

Yeah, I know. I'm just sayin'.

 

[GeoModder]

The environment may not be as serene as Earth's, but if the aliens don't breathe oxygen, they must still breathe something. It's basic biology.

Most of what you breathe isn't oxygen, but nitrogen.
While Earth life uses oxygen to 'fuel' partly their metabolisms, there's no guarantee alien life needs to.
And even if its a necessity, the partial pressure of oxygen in an exoplanetary atmosphere is most likely not the same as on Earth.