the trouble with gravity

[lobsternooberg]

well they kind of look like rivers..... maybe if you made the cracks wider and created more of an archipelago look it might look like devestated land

if it happened a long time ago the cracks might have been filled in...... except for the cities,dungeons, and catacombs which were buried

[Sabre Of Light]

First of all, thank you for replying

well they kind of look like rivers..... maybe if you made the cracks wider...

Ah, you see now, that's not how the cracks are supposed to look at all - this is just an overview of how they should run

...Give us a bit more of your thinking...

Ay ay - I've just read what I've written below and I believe this may prove tedious

Well, I will proceed then. I didn't want to be overly boring, so I've tried to keep things simple (if anyone's interested in details, I will be more than happy to provide them on request )
The continent was flying (or should I say, suspended in the air) thanks to the presence of the Gate to the Elemental Plane of Air; thanks to the somewhat brutal closure of the Gate, it was flying no longer
Now, the Gate was closed with help of an Earth elemental, which is important, because this help was responsible for creating most mountains on the continent.
Why am I explaining all of the above? Because the Elemental fell with the continent and in fact broke its fall a little bit
The Gate was in the air under the continent and it was the magical qualities of the air around it that was making it fly. The Earth Elemental was under the continent when he closed the gate and it managed to change form when falling to the one of gravel (the smallest one he could do).

I do sincerely apologise for boring you stiff with that and I hope I haven't put you off asking for people's thinking processes
...and let me know if the cracks look more realistic now )

[Ascension]

If you've got some glass laying around, take a hammer and hit the middle of it. It will sort of spider web out from the spot where you hit it. Tempered glass (modern doors and windows) will shatter the whole thing into a million random pieces but laminated glass (car windshield) or sheet glass (shelves) will show the effect. I own a glass shop so I have a bunch of glass laying around, but I couldn't get a good pic with the bowling ball. Here's a pic of a joke golf ball crashing into a windshield that shows the effect. Granted that earth is softer so the cracks would be less straight, more forking like lightning. Add the crater ring back in and yer good to go. Rainfall will fill those cracks and eventually some will turn into rivers, some will be short-lived lakes, etc...it all depends on time from that point on. After a few thousand years it might look pretty normal.

[Gidde]

Seems like in addition to the cracks you'd get some slumping around the edges. This project gives me an urge to take some mud, dry it, then drop it and see what happens.