1040: "Lakes and Oceans"

[nwtfrosty]

Yay.... It's good to see GSL recognized for it's depth... (It's pretty easy for me, it's that big white hard thing outside my window that will soon be turning soft blue and wet..)
That 2000+' depth's only over in Christie Bay in the east Arm, the rest is fairly shallow comparatively... Last summer my depth finder hit down around 1100 ft in the Hearne Channel leading into the east arm.
darn those pesky Russians and their Lake Baikal tho...

[squig]

What is the blue blob by Lake Ontario?

[aeson25]

Graphic in general is awesome! Love seeing the relative depths. Not so sure about that Soviet Russians being "awesome" both with their blind dive in scientific exploits, and their misuse of money with a starving population.

[Tony]

What is the blue blob by Lake Ontario?

I believe that blob, and the vertical blue line descending into it, represents Niagara Falls.

[Tony]

Those intrigued by the mysterious door at the bottom of the Challenger Deep might enjoy reading "A Colder War," a Lovecraft-inspired sci-fi novelette by Charles Stross. It's available online, linked from his Wikipedia page.

[TheDove]

Sooo... what exactly is the difference between water rushing in and air rushing out?

[SecondTalon]

Sooo... what exactly is the difference between water rushing in and air rushing out?

The air doesn't rush out. It gets compressed and pushed further in. Normally you'd expect air to rush out until the pressure is equalized, then for air to continue leaving while water enters. At that depth, no air leaves, but water still enters.

It's.. not just that there's 10 pounds of shit in the 5 pound bag, it's that there's now an extra 30 pounds of shit being crammed in on top of the 10 pounds in the 5 pound bag.

[Dornroschen]

The giant squid are real - there's one of them in Te Papa museum in NZ. They die from the pressure change when you drag them up to the surface :/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid#First_observations_in_the_wild

Best thing in that Wikipedia article - "The giant squid is the second largest mollusc and the second largest of all extant invertebrates. It is only exceeded by the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, which may have a mantle nearly twice as long"

[Whys]

Sooo... what exactly is the difference between water rushing in and air rushing out?

At high pressure, water can become "super saturated" with oxygen. Thus as the water rushes in, the oxygen is entirely dissolved and never bubbles out.

[DragonHawk]

Cool comic. I love things that help us grok scale.

I am wondering if "The Abyss" in the comic, aside from referencing Nietzsche and oceanic depths, is a reference to The Abyss, another James Cameron production. Lots of cool underwater cinematography. But I don't see any NTIs...

I don't get the Title Text. "James Cameron ... didn't know its song would be so beautiful. He didn't close the door in time. He's sorry." Song? Door? (Obviously referencing the door in the comic, but I get the feeling it's referencing something else, too.) Anyone have a clue to spare?

[SirMustapha]

Cool comic. I love things that help us grok scale.

Rebecca Black GROKS the days of the week.

[Whys]

Sperm whales dive deep because they know there's giant squid to eat. But what are the squid eating? Sperm whales use echo location. But how do the squid find food? Sperm whales have teeth and tough hide for hunting giant squid. While giant squid have strong tentacles and sharp succors for hunting... what? What under ocean is down there?

[Scott Auld]

I love the gigantic comics. Awesome.

[zhoen]

I was hoping to see Anghammarad. On the Abyssal Plain.

[zorts]

And when will the poster be available?

[Aubri]

I think the two things on this chart that amaze me the most are how shallow the maximum depth of military submarines really is compared to the bulk of the ocean, and the note about sperm whales.

There's an unlabeled dash at 1500m -- was that supposed to be the test depth of the DSRVs?

[cellocgw]

At least in my vsn of Chrome, can't get hi-res version of image. Just the small png; can't read the text. Links please?

[Zinho]

Sooo... what exactly is the difference between water rushing in and air rushing out?

The air doesn't rush out. It gets compressed and pushed further in. Normally you'd expect air to rush out until the pressure is equalized, then for air to continue leaving while water enters. At that depth, no air leaves, but water still enters.

It's.. not just that there's 10 pounds of shit in the 5 pound bag, it's that there's now an extra 30 pounds of shit being crammed in on top of the 10 pounds in the 5 pound bag.

Seconded. Here's another way to think about it: Imagine that you're the scuba diver, with lungs full of air at the same pressure as the water around you. If you dive below this line then when you open the flow valve from the tank the air in your lungs would get compressed into the canister instead of flowing out like you'd want it to. That line is therefore the theoretical maximum scuba depth, based on Randal's research into scuba tanks. There are other practical limits, like oxygen and nitrogen poisoning, or the anesthetic effect of noble gasses like Helium; these explain why the scuba record is nowhere near the tank pressure line.

I'm amusing myself, however by imagining that the pressure limit were the only one we were concerned with. A scuba tank could be charged far beyond its rated surface capacity if we could pre-position it at great depth and fill it on-site using hoses from the surface. Such a tank would explode if brought to the surface without depleting the air, but as long as it stayed submerged the water pressure would compensate for the extra air pressure keeping it safe for use during the dive. And now I can rest contented that I've solved a problem that no one will likely ever encounter

[sputnik15]

I love the timely graphic! The only thing I would mention to note that Crater Lake, while drawn relative to depth, is not drawn relative to sea level (the surface of the lake is 1883m above sea level). I only mention this since most other things in the graphic appear to be relative to sea level (more or less).

(I know that would mess up the whole comparison, but the anal nerd/Oregon native in me would sleep better with an asterisk )

The surface elevation for Great Slave Lake and Lack Baikal is incorrect as well.

[Shelgeyr]

At least in my vsn of Chrome, can't get hi-res version of image. Just the small png; can't read the text. Links please?

http://xkcd.com/1040/large/

[Zylon]

Today's comic is the pits.

[jedi]

I should note that Alvin has been upgraded, and the new depth limit for the pressure sphere is 6500 m. Stage II of the upgrade will finish the job and make all of the hydraulics, etc. rated to 6500m.
http://www.whoi.edu/main/alvin/upgrade

[Apeiron]

Punctuation Error: "So presumably there are big squid down there?" is marked as a question when it is a statement and should therefore end with a period. If it was* a question it should be, "Are there big squid down there?".

Question marks mark questions.

* Subjunctive mood is archaic and should be forgotten to make subject verb agreement more consistent.

[SecondTalon]

Punctuation Error: "So presumably there are big squid down there?" is marked as a question when it is a statement and should therefore end with a period. If it was* a question it should be, "Are there big squid down there?".

Question marks mark questions.

* Subjunctive mood is archaic and should be forgotten to make subject verb agreement more consistent.

The entire statement is conversational in tone. One very well may say, in a conversation, a statement that rises at the end to suggest the speaker questioning the very statement they're saying. The sentence was written and punctuated to reflect the speech patterns. It is not intended to reflect even informal writing styles, much less formal ones.

It's monolog, not description.

[RaenirSalazar]

WHERE'S R'LEY!?!?!?!? Or Father Dagon!?

[pyronius]

It was squids. The door leads to squids...

Specifically Squidhold the lost city of the ancient squidfolk who once and someday will again inhabit the earth as its favorite children. James Cameron was signing a peace agreement from Obama so that we Americans won't be killed in the mighty upswelling.

[SecondTalon]

WHERE'S R'LEY!?!?!?!? Or Father Dagon!?

That's how you're choosing to spell R'lyeh. Riley. Really.

[d0rk]

Spoiler:

As Randall stated in a talk at... some university, the Ballmer peak lies between 0.129 and 0.138% BAC. These are rounded values, the actual peak lies at a BAC of 0.1337%.

The unmarked line in today's comic lies at a depth at exactly approximately 1,337m depth.

I didn't want to spoil the surprise, but apparently I've been a bit too cryptic

Hope that clears up any confusion

They are pretty close, aren't they?

Spoiler:

Try resizing the x-axis so its top matches the sea level.. Randall scares me sometimes...

[pootle]

Ah! DSV Alvin not the new levels reached by "Chipwrecked"

[RaenirSalazar]

I'm certain the Cosmic Horror cares how I misspell their unspellable unspeakable unpronounceable incomprehensible names that they merely put on for our comfort. Excuse me as I get Flandre and Remilia to harpoon me some demon squid.

[thearbiter]

Nothing is more boring than discussing grammar and spelling on the internet, but I really had to add a +1 to ST's post. Complaining about a question mark here is pedantry beyond belief.

Subjunctive mood is archaic and should be forgotten to make subject verb agreement more consistent.

All I can say is LOL. "Should be forgotten"? According to whom? It is good writing style to include the subjunctive and I will think better of those who do. Of course I won't kick up a fuss when someone fails to use it but it's pretty ridiculous to say that people should abandon it because it's archaic (it really isn't).

Anyway, this must be one of my favourite graph comics on this site so far. Great work.

[enumerated powers]

I read or heard somewhere years ago that Jacques Cousteau upon returning from one of his record dives reported seeing an unusual creature where it was thought at that time to be too deep for any life.

A reporter asked him "do you think there are more of these?"

With the Frenchman's twinkle in the eye he replied "Well, where there's one, there's two."

[Whizbang]

FWIW,to those who thought it should be "Great Salt Lake" instead of "Greate Slave Lake" the Great Salt Lake is actually very shallow, at most about 30 ft deep. It would hardly register on this graphic. I grew up in Salt Lake City. At least once a summer we used to go out to the lake and see how far we could walk before we could't touch the bottom with our head's still exposed to the air. It was a really long walk.

Also, one time I had a rash from going on a bike ride in wet swimming shorts. I then took a dip in the super-salty water. Big mistake.

[DarsVaeda]

Randall you seem to be very interested in deep sea creatures especially squid.

If so I can only recommend this book:

Vilém Flusser's - Vampyroteuthis infernalis

It is about the Vampire squid which lives at 3000ft or maybe even deeper.
According to Flusser it sees his world by having sex with it. Yep you read that right.
The book will not only let you think about how other animals experience this so-called reality but reverts back to our own experience of it.
And the best thing is, it is not one of those drily philosophical books with hundrets of pages you wish you never read.

PS: amazon advertisment not intended

[Takigama]

Spoiler alert, I shat bricks when I saw it, you might not want to spoil that experience for yourself

Spoiler:

I don't get it.

It has to do with the red line provided by d0rk, which corresponds to the level of an un-labeled line section underneath the "champagne bottle" notation in the original. This line segment is approximately 1400m below sea level, and is apparently the "Balmer Peak" Easter egg that he mentions in his earlier post.

I dont quite get how this has any relation to the "balmer peak"... while i can appreciate pointing out the "leet" depth, its relation to the balmer peek (blood alcohol content) doesnt sound very realistic given they have no relation to one another (aside from both being a version of 1337).

[lordewoks]

Maybe my kids watch the movie too much, but I'd love to see the events of Finding Nemo charted out over chart.

[Tibixe]

One awesome fact: according to simple calculations, at pressures greater than 800 atm air bubbles would fall downwards in water. This probably isn't true in practice, though, I suspect the air would quickly dissolve rather than form a bubble. Disclaimer: I am not a physicist.

[San Fran Sam]

What is the blue blob by Lake Ontario?

I believe that blob, and the vertical blue line descending into it, represents Niagara Falls.

NIAGARA FALLS! Slowly, I turned. Step by step. Inch by inch.....

[Aubri]

One awesome fact: according to simple calculations, at pressures greater than 800 atm air bubbles would fall downwards in water. This probably isn't true in practice, though, I suspect the air would quickly dissolve rather than form a bubble. Disclaimer: I am not a physicist.

That doesn't make sense. Nitrogen is less dense than water, even if you liquefy it.

[feingarden]

Another epic .... what, comic? Diagram? Map? Whatever it is, it's an epic one. The one thing that I would have liked to see added to this would be Gatun Lake at the "top" of the Panama Canal...