Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 410 - 408: The Great Plateau

Chapter 410: Chapter 408: The Great Plateau

Regarding this great earthquake, humans had not conducted a global experiment of this kind, or to put it another way, they temporarily lacked the power to undertake such an experiment, so they also lacked a way to extrapolate related data.

Moreover, the Taipu Civilization’s development of ocean resources was still in a very primitive state. If they could truly exploit ocean resources, in theory, it would greatly alleviate the scarcity of rare earths.

"Next, apart from a series of changes in ocean mineral resources, there is another point." The geologist on stage raised a second finger: "After the earthquake, due to the compression between plates, within one hundred and fifty thousand units of time, near the Equator of this planet, the world’s tallest peak appeared, along with a vast super plateau with an average altitude of ten thousand meters!"

The screen displayed a satellite photo of the plateau near the Equator that, due to its high elevation, had a certain amount of snow accumulation.

In such a high-gravity environment, the emergence of such a high-altitude plateau actually drew the attention of many geologists from the beginning. The higher the gravity of a planet, the more level its terrain should be, but the plateau on this planet was even taller than those on Earth, which was simply against all reason. However, if this plateau were exceptionally young and man-made, then there would be a more reasonable explanation.

This plateau known as "Emilia" was located within the borders of six countries including Ao Country and Lai Country. The compression of plates was so intense that even now, small-scale earthquakes erupted, and with the high altitude and low air pressure, it was not suitable for Taipu people to live.

Consequently, the plateau was sparsely populated, becoming a border between various countries, and had not been truly developed.

But from human perspective...

Zhang Yuan’s pupils dilated slightly as an idea abruptly sprung into his mind.

This was completely a natural rocket launch base!

There were five conditions to consider for the location of a satellite launch center.

First, the lower the latitude, the better, because one can utilize the rotational force of the planet. Launching rockets near the Equator, spacecraft can begin with greater initial speed, saving fuel, thus effectively lowering launch costs and reducing difficulty.

This plateau happened to be near the Equator!

Second was the climate condition; this high plateau, due to its elevated terrain, had a dry climate, less precipitation, and good visibility in the air. This planet, with its vast oceans, was overall quite moist, and arid areas near the Equator like this were not common.

Third was the terrain condition, open and flat, relative to the surrounding area, with a higher elevation.

Fourth, transportation conditions. As of now, this point was not quite met, as the plateau was still untamed, and transportation surely did not keep up.

Fifth, safety conditions; the surroundings of the satellite launch center had to have a sparse population, to ensure safety in case of launch failure. Therefore, a launch base could not be established near busy urban areas.

This plateau over ten thousand meters in elevation, although not the best in terms of transportation, undoubtedly met four of the conditions...

And there were additional benefits, with some channels in the middle possessing an exceptionally abundant water supply, large hydroelectric power stations could be constructed, resolving energy issues all at once.

The expert on stage became excited as he said this: "In conclusion, if we consider this objective environment, our scientists have conducted a series of calculations..."

"The content of those calculations was, using human technological means from the early 21st century, if a rocket launch base really were built on this plateau, whether it could send satellites into space, inaugurating a true Space Age!"

The conference room was very quiet, everyone sat upright and alert, waiting for this final conclusion.

This conclusion is very important. If so many objective factors are integrated, and the Taipu Civilization still has no way to enter the space age, then it can only be said—earthquakes are very likely to occur naturally.

If the Enlighteners had triggered the earthquake, they would have calculated the relevant "development steps" so that the "step" wouldn’t be too high, making it impossible for a low-level civilization to scale. Otherwise, what’s the point of such help?

The expert didn’t beat around the bush and directly arrived at the conclusion, "After discussion and analysis, we believe that it’s a bit of a stretch, but with the technology of a 0.7 level civilization, it can be done!"

"Boom," the meeting room erupted, even a faint applause could be heard!

A bit of a stretch and utterly impossible are two entirely different concepts.

That is to say, this "great" earthquake was indeed most likely caused by the Enlightener Civilization, creating conditions for the Taipu people to enter the space age.

However, as of now, the Taipu Civilization has not discovered it.

These series of operations simply made Zhang Yuan’s eyes pop—this was... incredibly violent!

He seemed to see that fifteen thousand years ago, in the very distant past, the Enlightener Civilization passed by here, suddenly finding this primitive-age civilization that, due to its poor geographical location, would never have a chance to enter the space age in the future.

So, they figured out a way to trigger a strong earthquake, creating this plateau, turning "absolutely impossible" into a slight possibility.

Then they walked away nonchalantly!

As for the Taipu Civilization, whether they could step into the space age or would use these created conditions didn’t need further consideration... At least the environmental factors had been transformed through a series of changes and were no longer the kind of severe impossibility.

This possibility was very high!

Li Zhendong suddenly remarked on the side, "What an interesting civilization indeed. I really feel that this civilization has a certain benevolence and is not that so-called ’organic matter harvester’... To live in this world, one always needs some higher pursuit, although I don’t know if this strange action counts as a higher pursuit... Anyway, it’s fascinating. Shouldn’t being fascinating be considered the highest pursuit?"

"Anyway, calling them ’Enlighteners’ is probably not an exaggeration..."

Zhang Yuan couldn’t help but take a sip of water to calm his emotions and followed up, "Yes, having such precursors in the Milky Way is truly something to be celebrated... But to trigger such tectonic movement, with human’s level of science, it’s not possible yet, right?"

Li Zhendong thought for a moment, then scribbled some numbers with a pencil on paper, "If we really forced it, it could be done, just with some strain. It just requires more nuclear bombs! Let’s see, the former Emperor Nuclear Bomb with fifty million tons of yield, didn’t it move the Eurasian Continent’s plates by 9 millimeters? If we could create several hundred million of those bombs—oh, I’m just making up this number—anyway, it should also forcibly move the plates."

"But using nuclear bombs is too crude. In practice, it might cause mass extinction of species and even destroy the entire ecosystem... I wonder how the Enlighteners did it, it truly is the great power brought by technology!"

"I have thought of a better method... Use multiple nuclear bombs to explode simultaneously beneath the earth’s crust to lever the plates, or maybe the Enlightener Civilization dug deep into the ground, triggered an explosion in the mantle layer, and then caused a series of chain reactions. These are all possibilities." Li Zhendong said this as he enthusiastically discussed with other experts.

"There is a weapon, the Continental Shelf Shaker! It causes vibrations during the rapid release of energy in the earth’s crust, producing a natural phenomenon similar to earthquake waves."

Zhang Yuan didn’t want to listen to their nonsensical talk and then turned to ask the scientist on the stage, "Professor Lu, I have another question. Have we discovered any good mineral resource sites on this plateau? If so, it really is like hitting three birds with one stone—on the one hand, solving the shortage of rare earths, and on the other hand, luring certain countries to develop this highland region that has always been overlooked."

"Extracting minerals requires building infrastructure. Once all the necessary foundations are in place, establishing a rocket launch site on the side wouldn’t be a problem at all."