December Entry: IP2025

[RobA]

I wanted to keep this one somewhat sci-fi while keeping with the cavern/body of water idea.

To this end, I present "Ice Pirates - 2025"

These swashbuckling modern pirates had created a base of operation under the ice sheet of a Baffin Island fjord in the Canadian Arctic. Their primary prey was cargo freighters traveling the newly opened Northwest passage. They relied on the stealth of their electric submersibles to both attach ships for their cargo and supplies as well as to reach their base, carved from below up into the arctic ice sheet.

The base was constructed using thermal fusion technology. After drilling small boreholes, a thermal device was placed and triggered, that would result in a spherical shaped void melted into the ice. The size of the charge would determine the final size of the void created. Power was supplied by a solar panel array mounted just below the surface of the have, having the same albedo as glacial ice, making the site virtually invisible to surface observation and location.

The base provided a safe, essentially self contained hideout that these pirates were able to operate from for a 12 year period.

Unfortunately, the same global warming that opened up the northwest passage and provided their prey caused the abandonment of their base. The ice-shelf they were located under had deteriorated to the point where fractures in the ice made remaining dangerous, with some crevices actually penetrating the main cavern.

Original concept sketch:
Attachment 1902

Work to date showing side view and top view (time so far - 1.5 hours):
Attachment 1903

Tool Used: Inkscape

I intend to either make this a cutaway drawing (but probably don't have the time) to will just draw the layout under this layer with reduced opacity.
-Rob A>

[The Cartographist]

Cool idea! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the project...

[pyrandon]

Only you would think of this, RobA. Awesome.

[RobA]

Got in a bit more time - finished up the side view cutaway

Half my time is gone - at 2 hours.

-Rob A>

[RobA]

3 hours in to this and I've finished detailing the two views as cutaways, and added the ice fractures referred to in the writeup...
Attachment 1938

1 hour to go to finish labels, legends, and a title, etc...

-Rob A>

[RobA]

OK -

I have finished it up at 3:50

Added labels, a title, an overview map (thanks to google and inkscape's trace bitmap function).

I have more I'd like to do, mainly along the "blinkenlights" enhancements and meaningless techno-babble, but will leave it as is.

Oh - the blue "lightening" in the plan view is supposed to represent the fissures described in the writeup.

-Rob A>