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Sure, some heat will be added to the ocean. But land-based data centers add heat to the environment and also need to be air conditioned. One question, what ha
by malloryerik 11y ago
Sure, some heat will be added to the ocean.
But land-based data centers add heat to the environment and also need to be air conditioned.
One question, what happens when there's a tsunami?
This is a particularly relevant question on the US west coast:
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-to-stay-safe-when-the-big-one-comes http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-to-stay-safe-when...
- jwcacces 11y agoPresumably nothing. Tsunamis are a problem where the ocean meets the coast, almost nothing is going on when the water is deep.
- rtkwe 11y agoA tsunami would have relatively little effect on a pod suspended/anchored to the sea floor. They only get violent when they reach the shallows and come onto land. It'd have more effect on the shore connection point where the data and power go into the ocean. These could be buried up to the shore though and anything above ground secured in a sealed bunker though that doesn't solve the problem of keeping the pods powered through the power outage after a tsunami.
- malloryerik 11y agoThat's somewhat reassuring (there's thought to be a 12% chance of a Cascadia mega-quake and accompanying west coast tsunami in the next twenty years).
- rtkwe 11y agoYeah the main factor in how much will a large wave or tsunami affect a structure at sea is how deep is the water the object is in. Out in the deep ocean the surface swell is less than a meter and the wavelength is huge (200 km or so long) so the change is relatively gentle and gets subtler as you get deeper. It's really neat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami#Characteristics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami#Characteristics