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OldGoat
Midshipman
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2021 9:41 pm
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Yes, there are most definitely oceanic portals. The first one has shown up in Joelle Presby's short story posted on Baen.com.
This thread does raise some interesting thoughts about the physics of portals, which might shed further light on the other types of oceanic portals we might see in the future.
So far,
1. Portals have only vertical planes.
2. Portals do not seem to have a particular orientation, such as east/west, north/south or some other point of the compass. It might be interesting to see if the orientations intersect at a common point, either following the edge planes or the face planes.
3. Portals are anchored in solid matter, with only a portion protruding into air or water.
4. Does something in the physics of portals prevent a water-to-air interface? Or is that a result of Intelligent Design (see thread by that name for more), or the "industrial accident" which created portals. Perhaps the accident was something caused by magic, during the wars between the Shakira and the Andarans/Ransarans, which means there could be some as-yet unknown principles behind portal formation.
5. Could a portal be anchored in water and protrude into air? Or would the passage of ships from world to world require a portal anchored in dirt under shallow water, but with a large enough arc to protrude into the air above?
So, with 70% of the earth covered in water, why aren't there more water portals? If portals must be anchored in dirt on both sides, with no air/water interfaces allowed, that would mean oceanic portals might be exclusively under water, and many could be buried significantly below water level. Imagine a portal at the bottom of the Mariana trench. Orcas can only dive to 500 feet, so what percentage of the ocean floor is below 500 feet, and how many portals could be down there? Or maybe the physics or magic rules for portals somehow limit the size of underwater portals.
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