06-11-2015, 01:49 PM
(06-11-2015, 12:07 PM)Nyumii Wrote: So I've read that Avalon's ocean life can potentially grow much bigger in size than the large herbivores on the surface, and that there is at least one predatory species called the leviathans that are apparently massive enough to smash through thin areas in the ice shelf to hunt some of their prey. Just how large are these leviathans on average, and how much of a threat would one be to a modern-day Avali pack that is out in the wilderness and unaware that they are on its menu? One would assume that their society would have developed ways of detecting one before it pounced.Actually the existance of ice shelves I ruled out after remembering a simple bit of physics:
And with much of the world's marine fauna being able to grow to such large sizes, do the seas play host to a substantial number of predators, and has this stigmatized them to the Avali as a global case of 'shark-infested waters', or probably more likely, 'here there be dragons'?
Ice is somewhat unique in that it floats, because water in it's crystalline form actually REDUCES density, due to a quirk of hydrogen bonding. But MOST substances, when they freeze solid become denser, including ammonia. Ammonia ice would sink, and thus ammonia ice shelves would quickly collapse. Even water ice won't stay up, because water is (considerably) denser than ammonia. (Swimming in ammonia takes rather more effort than swimming in water).
That's not to say they don't still have huge aquatic species to worry about, but they'd be geographically isolated to just the deeper ocean regions and wouldn't pose a significant threat. They certainly have the technology and armaments to prevent attacks by such creatures there days for the rare occasion they might utilise ocean vessels. Such a creature'd be VERY easy to spot on sonar