Chapter 418 Earth Model
Suez Branch.
Gobi City.
At the same time as the immigrant cruise ship arrived here, a Phoenix passenger plane also landed at the city's affiliated airport in the evening.
Weng Xuehai and several colleagues from the Geological Division got off the plane in a low-key manner, and then checked into a staff hotel reserved for internal employees.
After a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant.
They were in the hotel's tea room, drinking tea and talking about the mission.
"Brown, is your magnetic point analysis technology reliable?"
The curly-haired Brown Vincent replied confidently, "Don't worry, as long as the three-dimensional magnetic field detectors are deployed, we can analyze the composition and structure of each stratum."
Weng Xuehai looked at the holographic earth projected by the laptop and felt a little worried:
"According to your request, at least one magnetic field detector must be installed every 80 square kilometers on the surface. In addition, there must be magnetic field detectors on the seabed, in the high altitude, in the low-Earth orbit and in the synchronous orbit. This is a very large scale."
Another bald researcher reminded: "There is no big problem within our territory. The key is that other regions can only collect data through magnetic field satellites in low-Earth orbit, and the data collected is obviously not comprehensive enough."
"There's nothing we can do about it." Brown shrugged helplessly.
The task of the Geological Department this time is called "Earth Model".
The so-called earth model is actually a comprehensive scientific research project carried out to study the geological activities of the entire earth and to analyze volcanoes and earthquakes.
Compared with traditional geological research, this time the earth model of the Homo sapiens Geological Department will introduce various new technologies, including magnetic field detection, gravity detection, underground nuclear explosion wave detection, and ultra-deep drilling.
This data is then used to build a comprehensive model of the Earth that can be used to predict earthquakes and volcanoes.
Among them, magnetic field detection is very important, because the Seismological Research Institute of the Ministry of Geology has collected a large amount of data in the Luzon Islands, the Malay Archipelago, and the Himalayan seismic belt.
Through these data, they discovered a very important phenomenon, namely: the changing law of plate stress and geomagnetism.
Whenever a plate releases stress, the surrounding geomagnetic field will undergo obvious mutations.
Sapiens has a dense network of magnetic field radars in Southeast Asia and has established a very comprehensive database of shallow surface magnetic fields. As long as there is any disturbance in the magnetic field, the magnetic field radar can detect the anomaly.
It is based on this strict magnetic field monitoring that the Ministry of Geology has successfully predicted 273 earthquakes and 3 volcanic eruptions in Southeast Asia, with an earthquake prediction accuracy of 86.4% and a volcanic eruption prediction accuracy of 100%.
This accuracy rate is already very high, and it is not detected within a few minutes before the outbreak, but several days in advance.
The geomagnetic mutation caused by plate stress does not occur instantly, but has some precursors and then reaches its peak at a certain moment.
In fact, this detection method was borrowed by researchers at Sapiens from the magnetic field sensing ability of animals, especially birds.
Many people will find that before an earthquake occurs, there are often large-scale phenomena such as pigeons getting lost, poultry and livestock panicking, and rats moving away.
This is actually because animals sense sudden changes in the surrounding geomagnetic field, especially birds that rely on geomagnetic navigation, which will cause them to fly around randomly.
In the past, humans had no way of detecting such subtle changes in the geomagnetic field, and it was also difficult to make accurate judgments based on the behavior of animals.
However, Homo sapiens, who have developed magnetic field radar, can detect abnormal changes in the Earth's magnetic field through these subtle magnetic field changes and supercomputing analysis.
After accumulating a large amount of earthquake data, the Ministry of Geology finally established a complete earthquake prediction system.
Southeast Asia has basically been able to avoid sudden earthquakes, especially sudden major earthquakes.
Because the precursors of sudden magnetic field changes of sudden major earthquakes are too obvious, earthquakes below magnitude 5 are more likely to be affected by other factors, leading to misjudgment.
This time, the earth model project aims to promote the successful experience of Southeast Asia to the global scale.
But the magnetic field radar is one of the core secrets of Sapiens. It was thanks to the accuracy and concealment of the magnetic field radar that Sapiens was able to defeat America.
Therefore, there is definitely no way to deploy magnetic field radars all over the world. We can only rely on magnetic field radars in low-Earth orbit and high-altitude airships to build a rough model of the earth.
Of course, the local branches and subsidiaries of Sapiens must be very accurate. In addition, areas close to Sapiens, such as central Africa, can also establish relatively complete earthquake and volcano monitoring systems.
On the contrary, the great powers who were on high alert against the Homo sapiens company could only monitor a rough outline.
The Geological Division had no intention of trying to please the other party. After all, the other party did not allow the airship of the Homo Sapiens company to enter. Could it be that it showed its so-called "great love" by proactively announcing the magnetic field radar technology or selling the equipment to the other party?
Obviously, Sapiens is not that stupid, and its management team will not be overly sympathetic.
Of course, the Earth Model Project has other purposes besides just detecting earthquakes and volcanoes.
The magnetic point analysis technology that Brown is responsible for researching is designed to improve the accuracy of magnetic field analysis. Through cross-monitoring of magnetic field radars in all directions, it can achieve a full range of analysis of the crust, mantle and core.
What is the use of this technology?
This is also the reason why Weng Xuehai, a geologist and mineralogist, appeared here. Through this technology, various underground resources can be accurately identified, reducing the difficulty of field drilling and mineral prospecting.
In addition, through precise detection of the composition and structure of the strata, it is also possible to analyze plate movement, fault structure, stratum stress, magma chamber pressure, groundwater network, etc.
This allows humans to study geological activities more intuitively.
Brown, Weng Xuehai and others came to the Suez Branch to study a special geological structure around the Suez Branch - the Nubian Aquifer.
The Nubian Aquifer is located in the northeast of the Sahara Desert, with an area of about 2 million square kilometers. It is located in the shale layer 500 meters below the ground and is rich in huge fresh water resources.
It is also the world's second largest known freshwater storage reservoir after the Antarctic ice sheet, storing 160,000 to 350,000 cubic kilometers of fresh water, which is about 1.3 to 2.9 times the current total amount of human surface water.
However, there are some unknown risks in this kind of groundwater exploitation.
Originally, the Geological Division did not pay attention to this problem.
Until some time ago, in order to build a space city in the Suez branch, a comprehensive underground exploration was carried out in the local Kharji Oasis area, and more than 40 magnetic field radars were deployed around it, which revealed some problems.
The Kharga oasis area had previously been pumping groundwater from the Nubian Aquifer .
Neighboring Numidia has developed a large artificial river plan since the 1980s to extract large amounts of fresh water from the Nubian aquifer and transport it to the Mediterranean coast.
After a large amount of groundwater was pumped away, the water level of the Nubian aquifer has been declining year by year.
Although desert areas do not have to worry about ground subsidence, a large-scale reduction in groundwater will create another problem, which is the change in stratum stress, thus affecting the stability of surrounding fault structures.
For example, in the Aztec region, the geological division of Sapiens discovered through analysis of magnetic field data that after large-scale extraction of groundwater, the already unstable strata became even more unstable and more likely to induce earthquakes.
A lot of groundwater has been accumulated over tens of thousands or even millions of years.
However, since modern times, human activities have been too intense in terms of geological time.
The groundwater level in an area can drop by hundreds of meters in just a few decades. This change is like a person having their aorta cut; the earth's crust has no way to recover all at once.
The current exploitation of the Nubian aquifer in North Africa has immediately attracted the attention of the Geological Division.
Although groundwater extraction has not stopped, desalination technology has replaced part of it and is gradually reducing local groundwater extraction.
