BY LETTER
PelaGelidian Subtype
Icy Ocean worlds | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Tao Li, a terrestrial world with icy seas | |
Icy ocean worlds with ice-covered seas covering more than 85% of the planet's surface. These are Pelagic worlds with their crusts frozen over due to a variety of reasons, most often a lack of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
Tidal or subsurface geological stresses often create cracks in the global ice coverage, allowing a thin atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen to form. Were it not for constant replenishment from these rifts, the atmosphere would desiccate within a few million years. However carbon dioxide may build up in the atmosphere over time, emitted from suboceanic volcanoes, allowing the oceans to melt temporarily or permanently.
PelaGeligian worlds can often be successfully terraformed by artificial heating, either by increasing the amount of incident sunlight, or by increasing the greenhouse gas content off the atmosphere.
Example Tao li.
A related suntype is the TundralPelagic subtype, where the ice cover is less than 50%.
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Before this world was heated artificially during the terraforming process, Lamorna was a PelaGelidian world. | |
Related Articles
Appears in Topics
Development Notes
Text by John M. Dollan
Initially published on 14 November 2008.
Initially published on 14 November 2008.
