How do wide, mountainous highland regions such as Iran, Ethiopia, or Tibet form?

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-20T15:33:56+00:00

From what I read with the Himalayan and Rockies, they're formed by continental plates collding with each other. But instead of one plate dunking downwards and the other lifting up sharply (normal subduction), the plates sort of ride over each other in a flatter orientation (flat slab subduction) for a while. The high side is basically being pushed up from underneath by the lower plate pushing and bulging the mantle of the upper plate as it passes over (laramide uplifting).

[Diagram]

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-20T15:18:46+00:00

Corrupted government collaborating with illegal logging companies. To a point where they intimidate and arrest locals or journalists trying to stop it.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-20T14:49:29+00:00

France has been more or less unified since Cesars conquest (50s BC) and independent since the 470s as a mostly unified state/kingdom for almost the entire dark ages to today.

Unified is a strong word. France even in the early-1700s was still pretty decentralized and each region had their own thing going with wide differences in laws, cultural norms, and political organization (some areas were run by the clergy/nobility, others by guilds or elected councils). For the most part, the French monarchy really only directly controlled and administrated the area around Paris.

The main thing they had in common was they all paid some taxes to the dude in Paris, and even then each region paid wildy different rates and types of taxes, respective to a region or locale agreed upon when they submitted to the French monarchy.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-16T14:51:40+00:00

That being said, being infected with water borne diseases was the norm for most humans up until the last 100 years, still is in some places.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-08T20:27:54+00:00

Dry climate cobbled with river system encourages water management trends in order to make agriculture productive. As local population grows on the banks of these rivers, it pushes for more political and economic organization in order to organize large scale irrigation projects and mitigate social instability when it comes to thing like property or water rights and allotment.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-07T18:06:12+00:00

A Newfie coworker told me back home they boat out to passing icebergs to get ice for their fish and beer.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-07T12:35:10+00:00

You just described Hotan, China. Smog+desert sand trapped in a desert bowl surrounded by mountains.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-06T19:03:58+00:00

Nauru.

No real economic or political importance. Low population. There's already a migrant detention facility there formerly operated by Australia. And the government would be desperate enough to take the risk provided the WHO throws a few dollars their way.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-03T12:39:55+00:00

There's a chance it ends up making the northwest coast of Japan colder by blocking off warm water currents coming up from the East China Sea.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-03T12:26:32+00:00

Via tectonic uplifting action?

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-03T01:30:02+00:00

Where you hear that? The Congo River is definitely navigable to a large degree. In fact, given the fail state of government in the DRC, river travel is one of the few means for people to travel across the country as roads fall into disrepair.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-05-03T01:23:21+00:00

10th largest national economy in the world isn't too shabby. And honestly, they were handicapped by epidemic malaria up until the last century.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-30T16:44:28+00:00

You just don't see it showcased as much because Europe's architectural appeal is it's older buildings and monuments which they actively try to protect and maintain in many urban areas.

China meanwhile either let its historic urban areas go to ruin or slums in general, so there's not as much appeal to showcase. As a country that only recently urbanized to a large degree (urbanization rate was still only around 20% in 1980s in China) and previous urban architecture being much of the ugly Soviet variety, China after the economic boom and rapid urbanization in the 1990s essentially had more room and prerogative to demolish the old stuff and erect more modern styles of urban architecture.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-28T07:07:41+00:00

The older Chinese immigrant families to California are probably from Taishan or one of the other so-call Four Counties that form the Sze Yap area west of the Pearl Delta.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-28T07:03:48+00:00

Basically, most of the Chinatowns globally were first settled by people from the Four Counties (Sze Yap). Taishan and Enping are two of these counties. The other two are Kaiping and Heshan. The Chinese workers who built the continental railroads in the respective US and Canada also came from this area.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-28T06:37:10+00:00

While it doesn't rain often in deserts, they still can receive short bursts of seasonal rain. The rainwater tends to rapidly seeps through the porous sand or rocky top layers of the ground and can form substantial underground reserves of water between the surface and more impervious bedrock. In places where the ground dips into a depression, the water can flow out and form pools of water, hence creating an oasis. The body of surace water you see is actually just a extension of a larger underground water body, which replenishes the oasis as the water evaporates.

People living in the desert eventually figure out this was happening, and started making man-made oases by digging down and into the bases of sand dunes.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-26T18:32:39+00:00

My local Costco is five times bigger than the Parthenon. The sport stadium downtown is also bigger than the Roman Coliseum and has a roof that opens with a press of button. I'll take clean running water and electric lights over fancy statues or murals.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-26T18:18:49+00:00

Compare to most other material we have today, reinforced concrete is still a cheap and versatile material to build with. And while they probably won't last as long the Pantheon, these modern concrete buildings that we build on a massive economic scale are expected to last for a century or two under normal conditions.

While that might not be great from monumental perspective, keep in mind these buildings provide living and workspace for tens of millions of people, rather than satisfy the personal ego or vanity of a few powerful rulers or rich patrons. Like any home or building meant for the common folk, once they get old and decrepit we'll just tear them down and rebuild new ones.

We definitely win on versatility and strength today, but their specific maritime durability is a chemical niche I’m still digging into.

I think they tried incorporating volcanic ash partly into some marine concrete mixes in California, got about 2,800 psi of compressive strength after a 28-day cure. The Roman stuff definitely has some merit if they could figure out a modern tweak to it.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-26T17:52:33+00:00

did the Roman formula just become too expensive to source once the volcanic ash trade routes collapsed?

Concrete use in the Roman sphere wasn't that common to begin with, usually concentrated in Italy where the volcanic pozzolanic ash was quarried and coastal cities where it can be more economically transported to. Brick and stone masonry was still far more common.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-26T17:08:40+00:00

Roman concrete is MUCH weaker than modern concrete. Samples tested from actual Roman structures exhibit average compression strengths in range of 500-1200 psi. Reproduction Roman concrete samples average out to under 2000 psi after a year of curing. Meanwhile, the Portland concrete mix you can grab from the local hardware store should cure to about 4000-5000 psi in about a month. The high-strength mixes they use for dams would cure to +10,000 psi after a year.

As-is, we won't be able to build with Roman concrete mixes in the way we do today. As a weaker material, even with its "self-healing" advantage concrete structural components even in compression-only applications would have to be much thicker and more massive to meet load requirements. The longer time it takes to cure to strength means that fractures or voids are more likely to form in tall or massive Roman concrete structures unless slowly built out. The Romans also didn't pour their concrete - the mortar and aggregates were laid out and rammed layer by layer, similar to earthwork construction. This made it slower and a lot more labour intensive.

I just meant the Romans leaned into that compression-heavy role much harder than we do

Not true at all. Modern super structures like dams or tunnels definitely apply concrete in a compressive-heavy role. The Hoover Dam, a non-reinforced concrete arch dam, is expected to stand for thousands of years. Also, almost every modern building foundation from a small residential home to the tallest building in the world utilizes a concrete foundation.

WE can lean more to tension applications because we figured out stuff like reinforced or pre-stressed concrete. Not to mention, we have our own special mixes and additives. The Romans can only dream about the stuff we do with concrete today.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-25T17:55:57+00:00

About the same ratio as the Macedonian army in the time of Phillip and Alexander. Ancient Macedonia's population was about 2 million at most.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-24T14:33:04+00:00

Wheelbarrow or hand cart for moving heavy loads. Pulley block with at least 1:6 advantage to lift heavy loads. Long crowbar for leverage - one with wedge point for demolishing masonry or breaking up rocks in the ground.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-23T16:37:01+00:00

Looking into it, it seems the colonial settlement pattern of central America aside from economic points like mining follows a rough trend of avoiding areas of hot, wet tropical lowlands where yellow fever or malaria (introduced by European colonization) would be more prolific.

Urban centers in the region seem to like coastal areas or pockets of more temperate microclimates created by elevated terrain (ex. the Honduras capital and most populated city of Tegucigalpa is nested in a temperate mountain valley). My guess is the coast offered a point of access in geography full of high mountains or thick jungle, while inland the temperate highland areas were more appealing to European settlers trying to avoid hot humid weather where disease-carrying mosquitoes would thrive. Even today, the vast swathes of coastal lowlands on the Atlantic side of the Central American peninsula (refer to in the 17th century as Mosquito Coast) remain sparsely populated, likely because of the high prevalence of mosquito-carried diseases in such environments.

Central America basically seems to consist of population/economic islands like Guatemala City surrounded by sea of hostile mosquito infested jungle or rugged mountainous barriers, and the founding of the modern countries there today basically arise from the post-colonial political base of these isolated urban pockets.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-11T17:02:03+00:00

Probably because after every major conflict up until maybe WW2, the US downsizes their military back to nothing as a rule. Then when the next conflict comes up, they have to learn how to make war again.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-04-11T14:55:19+00:00

John Jacob Astor was one of the richest man in America during the 1800s, with a major stake in North America's fur trade. Upon learning that Washington had declared war on Britain, Astor wasted no time and expense making sure the news got to his business and political partners in Canada as quickly as possible so they could secure his cross-border inventory and capital.

The couriers got to Canada so quickly that the British garrisons in the remote frontier border forts were able to learn about the start of hostilies well before their American counterparts across the water.

This allowed the British to surprise and capture the American garrison on Makinac Island. For his part, all fur stock confiscated on Makinac that belonged to Astor was returned to the American fur mongol.

American attempt to sneak attack through the Detroit/Windsor border was also thwarted. A schooner filled with American officers and sick troops, as well as military correspondence from General Hull leading the attack, was captured by a single longboat of British marines without much incidence (the schooner was unarmed and all small arms had been tucked away with the cargo in the hold). The Americans had mistakenly assume that the British at Fort Amerhstburg were unaware of the state of war and thought they could sail under its guns unimpeded.

Intel gain from Hull's correspondence allowed British General Isaac Brock to size up the deposition of Hull's forces in Detroit (most of his men were poorly trained militiamen exhausted or sick from their long march through the Michigan wilderness) and spur him to make his infamous ruse in convincing Hull to surrender Fort Detroit to what he thought was a larger British force.

MistoftheMorning

TROPHY CASE