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Was intrigued by this comment so I looked it up. North and South America have a surface area of about 42.55 million sq km or 4.58x10^14 sq ft (1 foot deep wate
by giarc 10y ago
Was intrigued by this comment so I looked it up.
North and South America have a surface area of about 42.55 million sq km or 4.58x10^14 sq ft (1 foot deep water is obviously 4.58x10^14 cubic feet).
Lake Superior has a volume of 12,100 cubic km or 4.2x10^14 cubic feet.
That's unbelievable!
- dekhn 10y agonow do the calculations on lake baikal.
- bryondowd 10y agoAbout 8.12x10^14 cubic feet, so about 1.77 feet spread over all of the Americas.
- motoboi 10y agoWhat about Guarani Aquifer?
- brownbat 10y agoA little over 3 feet. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(40,000+cubic+kilometres+%2F+42.55+million+sq+km)+in+feet http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(40,000+cubic+kilometre... To skip ahead, the Great Artesian Basin, the largest artesian basin in the world, would be just over 5 feet. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(64,900+cubic+kilometres+%2F+(area+of+north+america+%2B+area+of+south+america))+in+feet http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(64,900+cubic+kilometre... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Artesian_Basin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Artesian_Basin
- droopyEyelids 10y agoHow much fracking liquid could we pump in there and remain profitable?
- brownbat 10y agoYou're pumping in what's (loosely) soapy water to extract water. And in places where there's mostly positive pressure anyway. None?
- brownbat 10y agoI like that Wolfram Alpha will just do this one for you: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=volume+of+lake+superior+%2F+(area+of+north+america+%2B+area+of+south+america) http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=volume+of+lake+superior... It struggles with the more esoteric aquifers, and doesn't understand "North and South America" as an object, but still pretty cool.
- amelius 10y agoBut according to Wikipedia, Lake Superior has an average depth of 483 ft. So take the area of the lake and multiply it by 483, and now it is not surprising that you can cover North+South America with it.