What is the earliest point a dam could be built across the strait of gibraltar?

Based upon my wikipedia "research" I would venture to guess that such a project could have been successfully undertaken and completed by the 1980s or '90s. I have to ask, however, why and at what cost?
 
Actually, I'm not convinced it can be done now. The numbers look viable, but there are going to be unaccounted-for problems hiding in the woodwork. With a project this big and this costly, even less-than-catastrophic failure at any stage could kill it.
 

mowque

Banned
Actually, I'm not convinced it can be done now. The numbers look viable, but there are going to be unaccounted-for problems hiding in the woodwork. With a project this big and this costly, even less-than-catastrophic failure at any stage could kill it.

I don't think it could be done. I'm with you.
 
Actually, I'm not convinced it can be done now. The numbers look viable, but there are going to be unaccounted-for problems hiding in the woodwork. With a project this big and this costly, even less-than-catastrophic failure at any stage could kill it.

I think it would be technically possible to do it now, but it would never get the funding.
 
Like the fact that the dam would straddle athe major fault between the african and iberia plates? The fact that the Mediterranean looses more water than goes into it from ALL the rivers combined that flow into it? If you want to turn north africa, southern europe, and the middle east into a mega sahara even thinking about this is stupid. With out the atlantic in flow the med will dry up in a few 1000 years with the worse weather that comes with the loss of a major heat sink for the region.
 
Assuming a 100m average width dam, my back of the envelop calc suggests some 75 million m3 of fill, or some 150-200 million tonnes. Thats a lot, and probably requires powered earthmovers... MAYBE doable with steam, but i doubt it.

Edit. This is 30 times tne size of hoover dam, which was a wonder of its day.
 
And you thought the Southern European economy was bad now, try creating massive droughts across the Mediterranean and look at the consequences...
 

Oddball

Monthly Donor
Assuming a 100m average width dam, my back of the envelop calc suggests some 75 million m3 of fill, or some 150-200 million tonnes. Thats a lot, and probably requires powered earthmovers... MAYBE doable with steam, but i doubt it.

Edit. This is 30 times tne size of hoover dam, which was a wonder of its day.

Moving the needed earth/rock/concrete is the least of the problems.

Mind you, a eart/rock fill dam is not just a heap of earth/rock. It has to be layd out in nan orderly fashion. How do you do that 100m belove the surface? Not to mention foundation...

Btw, problems are just as bad if you chooce concrete
 
What interest would man have in doing that?

Because whoever envisioned this thing in the first place probably didn't care a whole lot about maritime commerce and traffic. Who needs trade when you can lower the sea level and start building on salt-infested ground.
 
How would this 'destroy' the global weather pattern?:confused:

Really? You don't think that evaporating 3.75 MILLION cubic kilometers of water wouldn't do anything to global weather? You don't think that the creation of a frickload of new land won't affect land beyond what used to be sea?

REALLY?
 
Because whoever envisioned this thing in the first place probably didn't care a whole lot about maritime commerce and traffic. Who needs trade when you can lower the sea level and start building on salt-infested ground.

When even Hitler thinks you're gargantuam megaproject is a silly idea, you know it's a silly idea.
 
Top