What If We Dig a Tunnel Under the Ocean?

if you need to get from London to New York if you can choose from several different paths going by water or air traveling on a sea liner is considered to be the most comfortable but it can easily turn into a nightmare for those who suffer from seasickness in addition a seafaring voyage gobbles up gobs of time and money as they last almost two weeks and cost roughly $3,000 and up in the absence of aerophobia a fear of flying taking a ride on an aircraft will of course be up much more rapid means of transportation however soaring across the skies is not an instant trip by any means it still takes from between eight to eleven hours and what if you suffer from both seasickness and aerophobia or for whatever reason you just need to urgently cross the ocean the problem can be solved with the help of a tunnel that would allow various kinds of transport to move freely from Europe to the USA such structures are no longer a novelty we now have a tunnel under the amor river in China thus a Khan tunnel in Japan travels under the sea the cross Harbor tunnel between the island of Hong Kong and Mainland China in comparison with the gargantuan tunnel which will have to be dug from Europe to America these will all seem like tiny little underwater paths nevertheless today there are several concepts for creating such an incredibly long transport corridor it could be laid on the bottom of the ocean floor under the bottom or even floating at a certain depth and there are two technologies that might be used that are considered promising the first is sectionalized construction and the second is panel construction the first provides for the Assembly of the main line from finished elements at the bottom of the ocean and the second is inserted into the thickness of the earth itself deep under the ocean bottom but before considering all these different construction concepts let's first determine what type of transport is most suitable for such travel traveling by car from London to New York one would have to endure a mind-boggling 5,600 Roadtrip remembering of course that part of the trip passes through England before going under the sea even at speed of 200 kilometers an hour such a distance would take at least 28 hours to traverse this is vastly longer than flying in an airliner but a vacuum tube train also known as a Hyperloop could save an enormous amount of time according to some estimates a Hyperloop train could accelerate to as fast as 6,400 kilometers an hour which means that it could travel from London to New York in less than an hour the secret of this super train is quite simple it's a sealed capsule which as it moves through the airless tunnel literally soars as if through an outer space with magnetic levitation maglev reducing friction at the wheels to almost zero in addition to the airless environment almost eliminating drag the vacuum also protects the tunnel from the destructive effect of the sonic boom that normally appears when the supersonic barriers overcome in the atmosphere in addition to high-speed an advantage of such transport is its high ecological compatibility unlike cars and trains it does not eject a fuel waste into the environment however creating a complete vacuum in a tunnel is an extremely difficult task they will still be air in the tunnel but only in very small quantities but even in small quantities at such high speeds if it is enough to increase friction such that the train will overheat and terrible things can happen so theoretically anyway we have found the best transport for travelling across the ocean floor now let's try to build a suitable tunnel for the vacuum enclosing capsule digging with shovels under the seat just ain't gonna cut it so we're gonna have to use a big drill this will allow us to take several meters from the shore deep under the ocean quite quickly so far so good but then water will start to seep through the earth and from above and then suddenly ker-plop the entire structure in the blink of an eye will be hidden under millions of tons of earth and water catastrophe so before beginning such construction it would be mandatory to arrange for proper drainage as well as soil consolidation fortunately the old but tried-and-true method of stabilizing the earth with the help of tunnelling boards will save you from such laborious and expensive work the essence of this method is that hydraulic jacks gradually push a shield forward with the construction crew immediately installing metal support rings with concrete and cement formation quickly following to prevent water seeping through the walls of the tunnel the front part of the passage or shield is kept under pressure with compressed air this process additionally squeezes free moisture from the rock draining it in effect up to a set distance in front of the shield furthermore to strengthen the earth and keep water from flowing one can use specialized Ohio genic construction techniques basically freezing everything true it won't be very easy working under such conditions the task can be facilitated by tunnel drilling machines with carbide cutters installed on a giant disc array these monster machines graciously devours soul earth and stone at a speed of up to 80 metres per day in addition this almost miracle technique immediately lays down on a preformed passage in its wake with giant sections of tunnel tubing interestingly most of the processes in the machines are automated with computers being responsible for accurately moving the unit through the earth when building a tunnel as a rule Tunnel Wars are used which move towards each other from the two different starting points unfortunately these amazing devices have one huge drawback they often fail but even if there isn't a single failure of the drilling machines during London to New York City operation a construction of our transatlantic underwater corridor would take at least 111 years to complete with about 90 years for the raw tunnel itself and the remaining 21 years for completing the inner covering and for a variety of cosmetic finishes we must also be prepared for the fact that the task will be greatly complicated by the difference in height at the bottom of the ocean at certain points and we'll have to do the entirety of this underground work the masonry and the installation of support rings etc all well knowing and chomping through a variety of densities of soft earth or hard rock in short the job is colossal but still without the even greater difficulty of parting the Seas which according to legend only the biblical prophet Moses could do it is possible however that we won't have to part the Seas as it were we might be able to accomplish the task with the help of a submersible tubular tunnel to install it you don't need to crunch and crawl your way through endless kilometers of stone and soil the structure is simply assembled in the water from separate preformed segments however it must still be taken into account that the Atlantic Ocean reaches an average depth of 3736 metres the pressure and the extreme depths of the abyss are quite hot more than 380 atmospheres therefore only a 16 heavy-duty kind of construction will be fit for the formation and laying of the segments it will need to be carefully protected against any and all possible future mechanical damage and lest we forget the ocean is unlikely to meet the builders with open arms it will certainly present surprises in the form of stones pits and other nasty shocks there's also the problem of the unexpected unevenness of the bottom these folds need somehow to be ironed out a special vessel loaded with gravel and small stones and with the help of a pipe can quite accurately fill the cavities in these nether most regions smoothing out all the incongruities in the path of our underwater tunnel but if these irregularities prove to be more extreme the work will become that much more difficult to do and in many cases gravel cannot be used as it's too heavy and will depress softer rock or soil below in this case to level out our sea floor path we'll need to use lighter supports made of metal or even plastic structures there's another interesting concept the creation of an underwater floating corridor in this case the sections of the tunnel are immersed and float just 50 to 100 metres below the surface of the ocean avoiding excessive pressure from the depths having neutral buoyancy these structures are then simply attached to the seabed far below true it's not easy to attach such a particular structure at such great depths and as a result series problems could arise during its installation and we mustn't forget about underwater currents and of course pressure on this underwater bridge they as well must be considered when calculating the strength of our transport passageway but whatever model we choose it will be tremendously expensive our underwater corridor has to be fitted with a wide variety of sophisticated devices and technologies for example according to some assumptions to safeguard against all possible failures the absolute most advanced robots will need to be employed other possible expenses will be the extensive use of carbon nanotubes and powerful seismic sensors which will allow for the structure to automatically adapt to underwater earthquakes according to some estimates at least 12 trillion dollars that's trillion with a T will need to be spent on the construction of our transatlantic tunnel our current level of technological development simply does not allow us to cut our costs or solve some of the major problems in any other way and finally it's still unclear what kind of an environmental impact the various versions of the tunnel would have nevertheless the endless and increasingly rapid development of Science and Technology occasionally makes it possible to implement the most fantastic projects just so recently in Nevada the first tests of a vacuum train Hyperloop were conducted as previously proposed by American billionaire Elon Musk and who knows perhaps such trains will soon carry passengers from London to your via a transatlantic tunnel if it is possible to build such a long and technologically challenging tunnel highway it will certainly go down in history as one of the most if not the most grandiose engineering projects in all of history its implementation would greatly add to our technological development across a variety of Sciences and industries as well as of course giving people a convenient way to cross the ocean

Channel: Ridddle

Views: 1,685,552

Rating: 4.6881485 out of 5

Keywords: Ridddle, what if, Dig a Tunnel, Under the Ocean, Tunnel Under the Ocean, Dig a Tunnel Under the Ocean, Dig, Tunnel, Ocean, middle of the ocean, secret underground, underground, how to build, how to do, how to make

Id: dZ-vFeQS3qE

Length: 10min 36sec (636 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 24 2018