A Structure or Material that can withstand a million years on Earth?

[massarchi]

hi, I got inspiration from alien, Prometheus, and knight of Sidonia(Japanimation)
in these SIFI contents, I ve seen artificial things that stand quite long time.
when it comes to man made structure, material, or method, I wonder is there any chance to survive million year on earth?
structure, material, or method whatever.
I know nothing about physics, so I wonder this actually possible or not. this also comes from my personal interest too which comes from my teenage.
BR

 

[Bystander]

If you mean "obviously an artifact," there are any number of "fossils" currently in existence; if you mean "obviously a 'construct'," tunnel boring machines have been driven off into side passages, or tunnels themselves may over time of abandonment become "casts," in a secondary, derivative fossilization.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

The rock on my finger is at least a few million years old, maybe even a billion.

 

[Grinkle]

The rock on my finger is at least a few million years old, maybe even a billion.

Its not artificial, or at least it was not artificed that long ago! If artificied is even a word.

But you offer a possible example, since now we have technology that can create true diamonds, those would probably last as long as a few million years or more, just like the natural ones do.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Put a micro SD card into an artificial diamond, one that has been prepped to resist the damage an unprepped one would suffer during the process. Or simply encode directly into the diamond, binary code, l and - or such for one and zed.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

I see no reason that the great pyramids will be completely gone in a million years. It'd take a hundred million to completely erode away.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

I see no reason that the great pyramids will be completely gone in a million years. It'd take a hundred million to completely erode away.

But which areas on Earth are tectonicly stable enough to be here in a million years? Those might be the first sites surveyed for this message, yes?

 

[Lothlorien]

I'm not sure if you are specifically after some structural object that is to withstand Earth's atmosphere but Quartz is highly resilient and several man-made objects have been designed that can theoretically last over a million years. One notable innovation is a data storage system by Hitachi which is supposedly good for 100 million years. http://www.infoworld.com/article/26...ata-storage-that-lasts-100-million-years.html

Apparently 100 million years is barely scratching the surface (sorry, bad pun) as other similar methods of data storage in glass are supposedly good for the age of the universe: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2016/02/5d-data-storage-update.page

 

[Grinkle]

Apparently 100 million years is barely scratching the surface

A different angle on the topic of data storage -

I heard the below 99% invis segment on NPR one road trip and it stuck with me.

Link to paper -

http://www.wipp.energy.gov/PICsProg/Test1/SAND 92-1382.pdf

Link to more digestible discussion / summary of the paper -

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/ten-thousand-years/

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I see no reason that the great pyramids will be completely gone in a million years. It'd take a hundred million to completely erode away.

It does rain in Cairo (admittedly not a lot) and some weather effect resulted in the erosion of the sphinx over a few thousand years. So there will be some erosion, exactly how much I don't know how to calculate. Beyond that though plenty of buried pyramids have been found that, over the millennia, have been swallowed up by the shifting dunes.

After millions of years it doesn't seem inconceivable that the Great Pyramid would be somewhat eroded and buried. Perhaps an archeological dig could confirm it as a technological structure but I given the SF references I assume the OP is asking about a ruin that could be found above the surface, largely intact.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

How about locating the "sign" on the Moon? Or in orbit around the Earth. Laser defenses for stray rocks, of course.

 

[DHF]

That is certainly one way to go, have something in orbit that eventually falls back to earth. The satellites in orbit will last practically forever barring any collisions, as their power supplies fail, their orbits will decay over a long period of time and eventually fall back to Earth. For the purposes of your story there could be any manner of objects inside something in orbit, when it falls to the surface, future societies could encounter the wreckage and find "artifacts" inside.

Anything currently on the surface however is unlikely to last millions of years. Most modern man made structures will only last a few hundred years without maintenance. Over millions of years you have to take into account Continental movement, The Earth will swallow up most of what is already here over such a long time span. Objects in orbit however would be immune to all of these factors.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Even satellites won't necessarily be stable over multi-million year periods. Whilst altitudes that negate drag are easily achievable orbits can be nudged around due to interactions with the moon, sun and other bodies. There's also the issue of micro-meteorite impacts and solar radiation that may degrade orbits to the point of no return.

 

[DHF]

Agreed on all accounts, but there is at least the possibility that a few might last that long thus given room for plot fuel in the OP's story.

 

[rootone]

The rock on my finger is at least a few million years old, maybe even a billion.

Yes but it's not made by human technology.
I guess there is a high probability that the Voyager probes and similar could still be out there in a million years.
Even if Humans are not.

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Yes but it's not made by human technology.
I guess there is a high probability that the Voyager probes and similar could still be out there in a million years.
Even if Humans are not.

We make diamonds all the time these days.

 

[rootone]

Yes, I knew there are industrial diamonds, not sure if they are used for jewelry though, maybe they are.
That apart though, I suppose it's possible that a diamond drill bit or similar might still be intact after a million years.
(If it's not in water or anything else which might gradually erode it over such a long time).

 

[Noisy Rhysling]

Yes, I knew there are industrial diamonds, not sure if they are used for jewelry though, maybe they are.
That apart though, I suppose it's possible that a diamond drill bit or similar might still be intact after a million years.
(If it's not in water or anything else which might gradually erode it over such a long time).

They are used in jewelry, and the makers put a special material in them that glows under a certain freq. of light, so they can be told from the natural ones.

 

[Nik_2213]

Synthetic diamond would seem the solution. With Holographic encoding, of course, of course, so subsequent cutting and re-setting would merely degrade, not destroy the precious data...

Pyramids ??

IMHO, given natural climate cycles wide enough to 'Green the Sahara', or AGW CO2 hitting 1000+ ppm and thawing the poles, the sea-level rise, ground water changes, salt-flaking, plant attack etc etc could make a real mess of such. Look at SE Asia's mega-complexes pried apart by trees & creepers, and that near-legendary Amazonian mega-culture rapidly lost to jungle...

Assuming 'Some Cultists' (TM) don't just tear them down as 'prior', or merely 'irrelevant'...

AKA, 'If in the Book-du-jour, we don't need it. If not, we don't want it...'

FWIW, continental drift may cause havoc on such 'geological' time-scales. Africa is trundling Northwards, diving under the Eurasian plates. Those recent quakes in Italy and the Balkans plus the Med's active volcanic arcs are clear symptoms of the progress. When East Africa rifts off, the change in plate motions may revive West African rifting, the Tibesti & Co volcanic massif etc etc. And, should that suspected subduction zone off Gibraltar develop, it would give vigorous, Caribbean-grade volcanism along that long-passive coast, plus possible back-arc volcanism inland...

I'm insufficiently familiar with other areas' deep-time geo-hazards to do more than suggest you site your archive within old cratons. They've got this far, they're probably good for another aeon...

{ Family shout of, 'Hey, d'you want ice with that ?' }

D'uh, yeah, glaciation may make a real mess of long-term plans...

 

[Rive]

when it comes to man made structure, material, or method, I wonder is there any chance to survive million year on earth?

If I drop a simple basalt cube into the ocean near a ridge zone it'll likely survive few million years - completely unnoticed. But I guess your question was about something big and easy to notice, right?

I would try to cut a mile deep canyon (in the form of some character or geometric sign) into a big basalt or granite formation on the surface (preferably somewhere in a 'silent' corner of Earth).

A bit of a work ( ) but hard to miss once seen from above: also erosion is fairly slow with that kind of rock so 'just' a mile deep cut would last for some time.

 

[DEvens]

Tectonic stability is relative. But there are structures we could produce that have a chance of lasting, and be obviously artificial.

In the country of Gabon, in the region of Oklo, there are natural nuclear reactors. They are sandstone structures, about 2 billion years old, with rich uranium deposits. They went critical because 2 billion years ago, the ratio of U235 to U238 was higher, and because water infiltrated through the rock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor

It would be reasonably possible to create nuclear reactors of this type by cementing sandstone together with the correct amount of uranium enriched to the correct extent. Put the reactors in a meaningful pattern. Each reactor could be as little as, say, 3 meters across. You could then draw a nice picture with 3 meter pixels. If you made it 3km on a side, you'd have 1000 pixel by 1000 pixel monochrome picture. You could draw a lot with that.

Bury this under about 1 km deep layer of artificial sandstone. The reactors are then quite obvious, and quite obviously artifacts, because they would be in a nice picture. Anybody who can dig through 1 km of rock will be able to recognize the uranium deposit.

 

[Keith_McClary]

The Atacama Desert may be the oldest desert on earth, and has experienced extreme hyperaridity for at least 3 million years, making it the oldest continuously arid region on earth.

 

[stefan r]

Bear Lodge Butte is thought to be about 40.5 million years old.

 

[DaveC426913]

Beyond that though plenty of buried pyramids have been found that, over the millennia, have been swallowed up by the shifting dunes.

Indeed. "Not being buried" was not one of the OP's criteria.
A buried bit of technology is still a bit of technology that has survived.

Because if "not being buried" is a criterion for the OP, s/he's going to have a problem.

 

[DaveC426913]

Bear Lodge Butte is thought to be about 40.5 million years old.

Pfft. The Canadian Shield is 4 billion years old.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

I think it's a safe assumption that you are considering whether an alien archaeologist might be able to detect that an advanced civilization existed on this planet millions or billions of years after we're gone? Or maybe wondering if it's possible that another civilization arose here and was wiped away long before we arrived?

I'd think the best way to detect something like that would be take a core of the Earth's crust, or find some place where geological layers are exposed. Because of a worldwide layer of iridium dated 65 million years ago, we know an asteroid killed the dinosaurs long before we found the crater. I suspect that you'd be able to detect all the nuclear ash we covered the planet with during the cold war for several billion years. I can't think of any natural way for such a layer to exist and finding one would be strong evidence of a species that exploded nuclear weapons. The majority of the fuel of fission bombs is thrown into the atmosphere, not fused.

Obviously, everything on the moon will exist long long after we're gone. Long after the pyramids have returned to the sands, the Apollo 11's base will still be standing in tranquility base.

 

[Keith_McClary]

His team dates surfaces that would normally be destroyed or washed away by rainfall or running water.

This is done with a technique that measures the changes in sediment grains caused by exposure to cosmic rays, high-energy particles bombarding Earth from space.

"We found loose sediment surfaces that would be washed away by any desert rainfall and these are older than 20 million years," he said.

This is much older than other hyper-arid regions, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica (10-11 million years) and the Namib desert in Africa (5 million years).

Chile desert's super-dry history

If loose sediments can survive, a Great Pyramid should be OK.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I suspect that you'd be able to detect all the nuclear ash we covered the planet with during the cold war for several billion years.

I suspect you wouldn't. There weren't all that many tests - around 500 -with a total energy yield 10 million times smaller than Chicxulub. The isotopes created either also exist naturally, or have half-lives much shorter than a billion years. Finally, there is thorium and uranium pretty much everywhere on the planet anyway, in the form of dust.

 

[Nik_2213]

IIRC, the Chile rain-shadow deserts are a result of an 'anomaly' in the subducting tectonic plate which has allowed that part of the Andes to rise exceptionally. In geological terms, merely transient. Worse, there's ample potential for massive volcanism which may bury your site per Pompeii or Herculaneum...