- #1
Somes J
- 14
- 0
Hi. I'm planning to use an all-ocean planet as a setting in a science fiction story, and I was wondering, what would the effect of an absence of continents be on the planet's weather?
The planet is something like 98% water-covered, its only land is a number of islands, mostly small, the largest are comparable to the major Japanese or Carribean islands. It's otherwise relatively Earth-like, although somewhat warmer (ice-free poles).
One thing I'm curious about, I've read speculation that an all-water planet might develop very powerful semi-permanent hurricanes, like you see on gas giants, since there's no land for them to break against. Don't hurricanes follow general large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns which eventually take them to higher lattitudes, where they dissipate because the water is cooler?
The planet is something like 98% water-covered, its only land is a number of islands, mostly small, the largest are comparable to the major Japanese or Carribean islands. It's otherwise relatively Earth-like, although somewhat warmer (ice-free poles).
One thing I'm curious about, I've read speculation that an all-water planet might develop very powerful semi-permanent hurricanes, like you see on gas giants, since there's no land for them to break against. Don't hurricanes follow general large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns which eventually take them to higher lattitudes, where they dissipate because the water is cooler?