New CBB

I don't really think that's possible, unless it's volcanoes on a hotspot on a tectonic plate that, for some reason (Possibly neighbouring plates on opposite sides going to opposite directions?), is spinning around rather than moving to some direction.

_________________
| | | (Nahuatl) | (Sanskrit & Pali) (Yaghan) | (Antregabua)
CrazyEttin's Lair

language-taster wrote: Could a roughly semi-circular mountain range naturally form? I think the Carpathian mountain chain is kinda sorta semi-circular...but I would like the one in my world to be more so. If it were, would it be naturally possible? And how/how not?

Maybe if the mountain range lies on a corona?Earth does not have them except maybe Iceland.

Thank you very much for that link, Akzali! (I don't know how to properly quote yet, sorry). I think my idea may actually be realistically feasible within my conworld, now. Much appreciated!

_________________
I sometimes wish I had synesthesia.

What kinds of materials could a moon of a terrestrial planet reasonably be made of? I know that the moons of Saturn and Jupiter and the other large planets can be pretty crazy, but it seems like all of the ones on the small planets are just plain old rocks.

Theta wrote: What kinds of materials could a moon of a terrestrial planet reasonably be made of? I know that the moons of Saturn and Jupiter and the other large planets can be pretty crazy, but it seems like all of the ones on the small planets are just plain old rocks.

Terrestrial planets are in the inner solar system where there are as you have said,just plain old rocks.
In outer solar system,ice and other materials are more frequent.
Perhaps you could make massively greenhoused planet with Earthlike temperatures that orbits in outer solar system and has two moons like Titan and Europa.

"Plain old rocks" can be of amazing diversity, and it depends largely on the origin of the moon. If it was originally part of the planet, like Earth's Moon, it will be of same kind on chemicals and, consequently, of same kind of rocks than the planet. If it's an asteroid that got caught by the planet's gravity, it will have same kind of composition as asteroids (And there are differences among them, too).

Whatever the case, the processes that modify the rock are very different in a moon with probably no atmosphere or hot, molten core: No erosion, except for meteorite craters, most probably no volcanic activity, at least not very long after the formation of the moon, and no biological factors. This can lead to interestingly different geological landscape when compared to the planet it orbits.

_________________
| | | (Nahuatl) | (Sanskrit & Pali) (Yaghan) | (Antregabua)
CrazyEttin's Lair

Do you think a moon with relatively large deposits of ice would be reasonable for an earth-like planet? I know there are several of those farther out in the Solar System.

I'd say it's possible, yes. But you'd have to design how the ice got there in the first place: If it's originally an icy asteroid caught by the planet's gravity, then problem solved.

_________________
| | | (Nahuatl) | (Sanskrit & Pali) (Yaghan) | (Antregabua)
CrazyEttin's Lair

just point the ice-rich areas away from sources of heat. (example: our Moon; extreme example: Mercury)

True. One way to accomplish this is having the ice fields covered by some kind of sediment (The question then is, of course, where that ammount of sand etc... could come from in that kind of enviroment).

_________________
| | | (Nahuatl) | (Sanskrit & Pali) (Yaghan) | (Antregabua)
CrazyEttin's Lair

Is it possible for a country to promote an "Official" dialect without being a 1984-esque control freak?

Pazmat's government officially promotes the use of the Western Plainlands Carsza dialect--all people living in Pazmat are required to learn it, and it's flat-out treated as a seperate language. This is neccessary because Pazmat basically has a Chinese-esque situation; its "dialects" are simply flat-out mutually unintelligeble languages. Without promoting the Carsza dialect, any single Paz would be incapable of communicating with 95% of his fellow countrymen.

The Government does not ban other dialects. You are free to speak your own with others who know it--you merely learn Carsza so if you travel to some other Pazmat state 3000 miles away, you can communicate with others without difficulty.

_________________
Banami bhjaddhos rafi mau cy vyaja cecerror.
Fools do not see the sun nor sail the seas
-Azenti Proverb

If they're mutually unintelligible, then that's not even weird.

Good, because it seems that attempts to enforce a language in real life tend to go...awry.

_________________
Banami bhjaddhos rafi mau cy vyaja cecerror.
Fools do not see the sun nor sail the seas
-Azenti Proverb

...and with 99.9% of foreigners. So?

_________________
(native)
(learning)

--
Języki sztuczne i lingwistyka, po polsku.

Actually, given how Techaria (Pazmat's planet) has around 8 billion people on it, and 2.0 billion people who know Pazmat as a second language (it's a lingua franca), a Paz would be able to communicate with roughly 30% of the people on his planet (not counting the 1.5 billion people who have Pazmat as their L1).

Also, if nobody in your country can communicate with each other, you're an incompetent government.

_________________
Banami bhjaddhos rafi mau cy vyaja cecerror.
Fools do not see the sun nor sail the seas
-Azenti Proverb

Do what? Language communicability should be imposed by law? And how would there even be a government if ""NOBODY"" can communicate? What are trying to say?

What I meant was, if there isn't an official dialect in this kind of situation, how are the hundreds of various officials from around the whole country going to communicate if everyone of them speaks a mutually unintelligible dialect/language?

Normally, there's need to impose language communicabilty, but when your country has over 10 different language families and over 400 different languages, and you can travel for 2 hours and have no clue how to talk to anybody, it's kinda neccessary.

_________________
Banami bhjaddhos rafi mau cy vyaja cecerror.
Fools do not see the sun nor sail the seas
-Azenti Proverb

You live in a good example. Just sayin'.

Yes, but most of them communicate in a Lingua Franca; which is the exact same situation in Pazmat--one dialect is denoted the official Lingua Franca of the country.

_________________
Banami bhjaddhos rafi mau cy vyaja cecerror.
Fools do not see the sun nor sail the seas
-Azenti Proverb

OK, I answered your question, do you understand that there does not need to be an OFFICIAL language and that even in a nation that has multiple languages (some of which are mutually unintelligible) can still conduct business?