5 ms·

Why not a tunnel?

• bell-cot 2y ago
  The Straits of Messina are ~250m deep, and Sicily has seen earthquakes up to magnitude ~7.5. Whatever their budget - there isn't enough unobtainium around to construct tunnel wall strong enough.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • chx 2y ago
    How does this compare to the Seikan tunnel constructed 40 years ago? https://web.archive.org/web/20161018110338/http://jr.hakodate.jp/global/english/train/tunnel/tunnel_omosiro.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20161018110338/http://jr.hakodat... > Minimum overburden (under seabed): 100m > Maximum sea depth: 140m Excuse me for being daft, is the difference going to be a showstopper ? Construction and material engineering surely advanced since quite a bit.
    • bell-cot 2y ago
      Admitting that I don't know the geology in Japan at all well... At the Straits of Messina, the tunnel would be crossing an active rift zone ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siculo-Calabrian_rift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siculo-Calabrian_rift ). That rift is the source of those big earthquakes - such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1908_Messina_earthquake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1908_Messina_earthquake - which was at the Straits, magnitude 7.1, and killed ~75k people. And for extra bonus fun - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_etna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_etna - is one of the world's most active volcanoes, part of that active rift zone, and less than 80km from the Straits. (Vs. the geological maps I can find seem to show that the Seikan tunnel does not cross any sort of active fault.)