Kerbin Geographical society

[Rath]

So this place is basiclly for us to speculate on how the current kerbin came to be.

 

I was inspired to make this after seeing this in this thread

 

 

Here it appears that there used to be massive wetlands or an extremely long, incredibly windy river here.

 

Are there any other parts of kerbin that you see and wonder about.

Perhaps we could create a map of kerbins possible techtonic plates.

Also, what direction does the big river flow?

[Rath]

The Booster Bay islands appear to be volcanic, like hawaii, because they have grown up in a line of dots.  If they truly are volcanic, then they should have ridges connecting them.  I will check with a sub soon

Edited May 3, 2016 by Rath

[Rath]

Well they might not have ridges, but it will give us more confirmation of the moment of a volcanic hot spot to build up the islands.

[Rath]

They do not appear to have ridges, but the sea is less shallow

[Foxster]

I suspect that what was going on in the region in the picture was that it was an area that had suffered droughts for several years and yet Nestle continued to pump out millions of gallons of water to put in bottles and sell for silly amounts. Or is that just in CA?

Edited May 3, 2016 by Foxster

[nosirrbro]

Kerbin appears to lack major tectonic movement due to the lack of major distortion of the two visible impact craters on Kerbin, which must be relatively old for Kerbals being able to evolve back when everything larger than an ant would have been killed on the surface based on their sizes. It does however have an active core based on the apparent volcanism of the runway island and magnetic field.

[msasterisk]

At risk of sounding obvious, the big river runs towards the ocean. Right?

As for the weird area in the desert, it has small ponds in it, that means anything. Maybe a salt lake that dried up?

Edited May 3, 2016 by msasterisk

[Rath]

The problem is that it is not connected to the ocean.  It probably flows underground at some point.

[ZooNamedGames]

4 hours ago, msasterisk said:

At risk of sounding obvious, the big river runs towards the ocean. Right?

As for the weird area in the desert, it has small ponds in it, that means anything. Maybe a salt lake that dried up?

Although that would be the seemingly correct answer that water would run to the ocean, the fact is in KSP there are no currents, meaning, the ocean and even rivers don't move. This is caused by two things:

A) If the water did move it would pool at the lowest point (and also cause significant strain on ones computer), which for the Earth is normal as the water is taken back into the earth by methods of water flow as it passes through mountains which filter it or by recreating the compound all over again as the water is evaporated and moved elsewhere. However KSP does not (as of this time) have a method of replenishing it's water sources so allowing the water to have proper physics would result in the equator to collect the majority of the water due to the rotation of the planet (this is partially true for Earth as well) (and before someone tries to explain how water could return, there are no mountain based rivers or underground springs in KSP, which are two essential forms of how water would return to the bodies of water outside of weather).

B) Water is already AT the lowest point for it to flow. The land more of less "dips" into the water to create the illusion of beaches, rivers and so forth. Not all bodies of water start at 0ft ASL (Above Sea Level), most sources of water start above and move downwards towards 0 ASL, however as water is not contained above 0 ASL, the water on Kerbin (even if it had physics) would not tend to move and to explain this slightly easier- It's like in Minecraft when you dig a small trench and fill one of the tiles with water. It will spread downwards to fill the other tiles, but if all the tiles already have water, the water does not move. This is the situation with KSP's bodies of water (I'll make this universal and speak to Kerbin, Eve AND Laythe here), none of the bodies of fluids will move due to them being static physical bodies and the design of the planets they are on.

This however would be a nice way to implement a proper weather system into the game as all weather ties into the natural movement and changing of water. So if Squad ever wanted to expand upon weather (and possibly have realistic clouds), this could be the way to go. But before this fuels the "Cloud Hype Train", I'll note that this feature would at best come several MAJOR releases down the line, likely closer to 2018 or even 2019 (if Squad continues to provide support to KSP by then).

That's my short explanation of water in KSP.

 

*edited*

Edited May 3, 2016 by ZooNamedGames

[Rath]

Could this be the third major crater?  If it is it is defenately the oldest.

http://imgur.com/RhtSXVq

 

ZooNamedGames, this is mostly just speculation on how it would work, not how.  

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

I wonder how the Mun formed. Does it have anything to do with the huuuuuuuge crater?

[ZooNamedGames]

1 minute ago, Rath said:

ZooNamedGames, this is mostly just speculation on how it would work, not how.  

Fair enough. I'm more commenting on the game as of this moment, but speculation like this is good Could shape the game and how it grows!

[Rath]

Cool, here i'll give you a damn

[ZooNamedGames]

1 minute ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

I wonder how the Mun formed. Does it have anything to do with the huuuuuuuge crater?

I've always believed it's some form of a massive space station like the Death Star which has become abandoned and since has collected space dust, particles and other such over billions of years as Kerbin's land masses formed and collected water.

Just now, Rath said:

Cool, here i'll give you a damn

And I'll shoot you a rep  for giving a damn!

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Just now, ZooNamedGames said:

I've always believed it's some form of a massive space station like the Death Star which has become abandoned and since has collected space dust, particles and other such over billions of years as Kerbin's land masses formed and collected water.

Where be the lazer?

[ZooNamedGames]

Just now, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Where be the lazer?

Somewhere under the dust. It would explain the perfect 0 inclination orbit above Kerbin which (in a realistic situation) would be impossible.

[msasterisk]

Well, if the water doesn't actually flow (which I already knew but was RPing a little), then maybe the river system is actually artificial, for farming in the past or something. It is pretty much directly north of the KSC2, isn't it?

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Just now, msasterisk said:

Well, if the water doesn't actually flow (which I already knew but was RPing a little), then maybe the river system is actually artificial, for farming in the past or something. It is pretty much directly north of the KSC2, isn't it?

THAT'S IT! Of course!

[ZooNamedGames]

1 minute ago, msasterisk said:

Well, if the water doesn't actually flow (which I already knew but was RPing a little), then maybe the river system is actually artificial, for farming in the past or something. It is pretty much directly north of the KSC2, isn't it?

the issue is that most of these rivers begin with the ground rising out of the water at a 60+ degree incline which would make farming useless without some form of mass movement of the water ABOVE this ridge. So sadly, no.

Also, creativity is ok  but mind the RP. Let's keep this as RP-free as possible  so we can continue to wonder how Kerbin became how it did  !

[Rath]

15 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

I wonder how the Mun formed. Does it have anything to do with the huuuuuuuge crater?

I dont think that crater is big enough to make that possible.  If it was, the mun would have to be really young cause its not very eroded.

[msasterisk]

2 minutes ago, ZooNamedGames said:

the issue is that most of these rivers begin with the ground rising out of the water at a 60+ degree incline which would make farming useless

Maybe the canals dried up a little? Pretty much guessing, but I think it's possible.

 

2 minutes ago, Rath said:

I dont think that crater is big enough to make that possible.  If it was, the mun would have to be really young cause its not very eroded.

Maybe both big craters (the old one having formed the Mun, and then the new one adding mass).

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Yes that

[ZooNamedGames]

2 minutes ago, msasterisk said:

Maybe the canals dried up a little? Pretty much guessing, but I think it's possible.

It's possible, but if that were true that would require A) the entire PLANET to have dried "a little" as again the water has no high/low point. Or B) The presence of weather.

I know I'm shooting down a lot of these concepts, but I'm being realistic, but if you can beat reality then you've beaten me  . So keep explaining! I'm optimistic someone here will find the way.

[Rath]

You just got a lot more damns...

Perhaps, but I dont think they are big enough to have been created by large enough collisions to eject large amounts of mass into orbit.  Even together.

If they where canals, perhaps the water source was cut off?  So they drained

[nosirrbro]

17 hours ago, Rath said:

Could this be the third major crater?  If it is it is defenately the oldest.

http://imgur.com/RhtSXVq

 

ZooNamedGames, this is mostly just speculation on how it would work, not how.  

Third? I thought there were only two, this one, the biggest, and the more visible one. Where is the other crater?

17 hours ago, ZooNamedGames said:

It's possible, but if that were true that would require A) the entire PLANET to have dried "a little" as again the water has no high/low point. Or B) The presence of weather.

I know I'm shooting down a lot of these concepts, but I'm being realistic, but if you can beat reality then you've beaten me  . So keep explaining! I'm optimistic someone here will find the way.

While yes, ingame the water doesn't actually flow, it is meant to be a river, and isn't for the sole reason of performance. This thread should take some liberties as to what needs to be taken at face value and what can be assumed for the sake of the thread that it does happen. For example, for the sake of this thread the rivers do flow into the ocean, along with the fact that we ignore that Kerbin is dense enough to start fusion in it's core and lots of other things. Kerbin was meant to be an earth like planet and as such some things can be ignored or assumed for the sake of the thread.

Edited May 4, 2016 by nosirrbro