I need to come up with a way to get my fictional character through the
earth's crust (not using polar holes) from the inner world to the outer
world. I can't very well have him walk or run for eight hundred or so miles!
I'd like for him to have to make part of the journey afoot; however, there
could be a transportation mechanism designed by ancients who may have
traveled between the inner and outer surfaces with frequency. The premise
would be that nobody had used such a mechanism for centuries, but it's still
there and functioning.
Maybe a natural mechanism is best, such as an internal river that carries
him hundreds of miles. I wouldn't know the physics of it, such as what will
happen in terms of gravity reacting upon such a river and upon him.
I've also considered creatures or societies living in the crust that might
swiftly get him from one place to the next, however, I'd have to come up
with a subplot involving sub-cavernous races (which might be a good idea
anyway).
I'm just wondering if anyone has already thought of something clever or
explored the possibilities.
Alice found a hole to fall into. Deep,deep holes, that nobody has ever found the bottomto, have been reported, right? As in the case of Alice, you could describe the phenomena observed during the fall, and then a soft landingasgravity diminished.
Dean
Subject: [allplanets-hollow] Any Ideas on Traversing the Crust???
Hey All,
I need to come up with a way to get my fictional character through the earth's crust (not using polar holes) from the inner world to the outer world. I can't very well have him walk or run for eight hundred or so miles! I'd like for him to have to make part of the journey afoot; however, there could be a transportation mechanism designed by ancients who may have traveled between the inner and outer surfaces with frequency. The premise would be that nobody had used such a mechanism for centuries, but it's still there and functioning.
Maybe a natural mechanism is best, such as an internal river that carries him hundreds of miles. I wouldn't know the physics of it, such as what will happen in terms of gravity reacting upon such a river and upon him.
I've also considered creatures or societies living in the crust that might swiftly get him from one place to the next, however, I'd have to come up with a subplot involving sub-cavernous races (which might be a good idea anyway).
I'm just wondering if anyone has already thought of something clever or explored the possibilities.
Interesting. Mel's Hole is one of them. Having him fall for a few hundred
miles in the dark would be quite a trip. But would a soft landing get him
only half way? (Assuming the center of gravity is in the center of the
crust.) Isn't there a theory that the center of gravity is closer to the
outer surface, something like 50 miles below us?
Thanks,
Blake
0108 wrote:
Blake,
Alice found a hole to fall into. Deep,deep holes, that nobody has ever found
the bottomto, have been reported, right? As in the case of Alice, you could
describe the phenomena observed during the fall, and then a soft
landingasgravity diminished.
Dean
Subject: [allplanets-hollow] Any Ideas on Traversing the Crust???
Hey All,
I need to come up with a way to get my fictional character through the
earth's crust (not using polar holes) from the inner world to the outer
world. I can't very well have him walk or run for eight hundred or so miles!
I'd like for him to have to make part of the journey afoot; however, there
could be a transportation mechanism designed by ancients who may have
traveled between the inner and outer surfaces with frequency. The premise
would be that nobody had used such a mechanism for centuries, but it's still
there and functioning.
Maybe a natural mechanism is best, such as an internal river that carries
him hundreds of miles. I wouldn't know the physics of it, such as what will
happen in terms of gravity reacting upon such a river and upon him.
I've also considered creatures or societies living in the crust that might
swiftly get him from one place to the next, however, I'd have to come up
with a subplot involving sub-cavernous races (which might be a good idea
anyway).
I'm just wondering if anyone has already thought of something clever or
explored the possibilities.
Full-force gravity would only penetrate say, 50 miles. The idea is that you would have strong gravity from the inner surface and outer surface neutralizing each other at the halfway point. But since gravity on the outer surface is stronger, the neutral point would be3/4 of the way down, not halfway.
I think that if you try to explain toomuch, you'll lose the reader's interest. Etidorhpa got away with it because it was, after all, a guided tour. But some guys exploring on their own would have to be clairvoyant to anticipate this stuff, even to understand what they were experiencing, even while they were working their way through it.
Dean
Subject: RE: [allplanets-hollow] Any Ideas on Traversing the Crust???
Hi Dean,
Interesting. Mel's Hole is one of them. Having him fall for a few hundred miles in the dark would be quite a trip. But would a soft landing get him only half way? (Assuming the center of gravity is in the center of the crust.) Isn't there a theory that the center of gravity is closer to the outer surface, something like 50 miles below us?
In the second novel of THE PULSIFER SAGA, entitled "Land of
Ice, a Velvet Knife," the protagonist traverses the underworld and
cavern world regions by a variety of methods, one of which is just
plain old spelunking: crawling, climbing, and walking. The
others are bit less "traditional," but are imagined literary devices.
how about this, in the bahamas there are those "sinkholes" in shallow water. (they are of unknown depth and look like a gigantic mine shaft a hudred feet wide or so). they look distinctly manmade. if you haven't heard of them, i could dig up some links for you.
soooo, perhaps you could start your book with a secret mission to explore the holes. one could be roofed over at the level of the surrounding sea bed, and then laboriously pumped out. when they run into trouble with the aquifiers you could have them freeze up the shaft walls like they do in mines, so that they can continue lowering the level of the water.
alternatively, you could have them go down in a submarine, but this would sound unfeasible to people who know, because of the incredible pressure of the water above.
aditionally, when i was a kid i remember reading a book that now that i think of it, was quite clearly intended to be about the hollow earth. i have searched and searched but i can't find the title of it.
it quite neatly skirted the whole "physicality" of the hollowness by having the main character enter by a teleporting gate between two large trees either side of a path in dense woods... once through, the effects included time difference problems, (ie when he returned it could be days later and he thought he was gone an hour or so) and the main character nicknamed it "the land of perpetual twilight" due to a dim stationary sun. huge forests, mountains and giants were menioned.
the gate (not what they called it in the book) was only rarely available, and only certain times of the day, and if you went at the wrong time, you would take the path and not find the two trees...
nside, the main character (who never had problems returning) met a girl who wasn't able to find the gate from the other world, and was stuck there (she was from the pre-automobile age, but still young) they became a team because she could always enter, and he could always leave.
the book ends with the gate destroyed, when a shopping mall was built on the patch of woods where it was hidden.
Thanks Paul. Interesting ideas. I've thought of using some sort of
teleportation gate, but it wouldn't work with the rest of the plot. (And the
story your talking about sounds familiar. I'm trying to place it...) My
character's journey needs to be an arduous struggle, because later in the
novel he becomes so powerful that the journey is very simple. But I'm
thinking of using a combination river and a waterfall that drops him over an
endless hole, to where he soft lands due to gravity, in vast reservoirs of
water (water that will be used later in the plot). He'll then traverse many
miles until he comes into contact with a bigfoot-like race of potential
enemies or friends that will help him to the surface. Of course these new
friends will re-enter the story at a later time.
Remember Hazel? Her site had a few things on indian myths regarding the
underground:
The Navajo creation myth, which is chanted at a nine day ceremony called the
Blessing Way, also defines several layers within the Earth. The first is the
under world from which life emerged. They evolved through four more worlds
until the Navajo surfaced from the labyrinth in this world, the fifth, as
humans. A sixth and perfect world was thought to be above this one. This
belief was shared by the Hopi, Zuni, Toltecs and Aztecs, whose precursor was
the lost Anasazi tribe (meaning ancient ones), and their paradise possessed
a palm grove, watered by four converging rivers.
The Mother Earth symbol of the Hopi Indians is a series of squares inside
one another, and is identical to the Minoan (Atlantean) labyrinth design
found on coins at Knossos in Crete, when it was excavated in 1900, by Sir
Arthur Evans. The throne room of King Minos, a judge of the dead, was
decorated with reclining griffins and he fed seven Athenian maidens and
youths every year to the Minotaur, which was the half-human, half-bull,
offspring of his wife, Pasiphae and was trapped in the inescapable maze
designed by Daedalus. Theseus killed the brute by throttling it with his
bare hands!
Of course I remember Hazel :-).. I went searching in your archives and
found one of my favorite Native American stories that she posted..
here's the link.
