(The critique I would like here is scientific rather than literary. Is this place possible? or are there difficulties and inconsistencies in the planet’s natural history I have overlooked? As always, I thank anyone who is kind enough to offer their help)
Placet is the sixth planet orbiting the star Eta Carinae . It is about the size of Earth with a similar magnetic field and gravity.
About a billion years ago it was covered almost entirely (95%) by shallow seas. It had no orogeny, so the surface became remarkably flat. The only life was submicroscopic, very simliar to earths’ forminifera. It was like this for about 300 million years and as generation upon generation of the forminfera died and their amazingly tiny skeletons rained down upon the sea floor the planet became covered in a shell of limestone several miles thick.
Then Eta Carinae flared up due to internal storms. It heated Placet to the point where the oceans dried up. However, they did not escape the planet, only becoming vapor in the atmosphere
When Eta Carinae returned to normal, about 10 million years later, the ocean returned to liquid and rained down. The cool down was gradual and so was the ocean’s return, taking about 50 million years
And in that time the rain collecte in the very slight depressions in the surface which remained remarkably flat overall so there was little erosion. The water trickled through the limestone and formed caves.
Placet’s version of limestone, however was somewhat stronger than Earths. Karst structures were not formed, rather the caves simply became huger and huger
And the oceans drained into them, becoming thus removed from the rain cycle, forming rivers and oceans underground
So Placet is as you see it. A cave planet. Surface solar power stations run the cities underground. The human inhabitants, who arrived about 10 millenia ago, mainly make a living by mining and refining the limestone, unique across the galaxy for making a type of superstrong cement which is also uniquely beautiful
Placet is the sixth planet orbiting the star Eta Carinae . It is about the size of Earth with a similar magnetic field and gravity.
About a billion years ago it was covered almost entirely (95%) by shallow seas. It had no orogeny, so the surface became remarkably flat. The only life was submicroscopic, very simliar to earths’ forminifera. It was like this for about 300 million years and as generation upon generation of the forminfera died and their amazingly tiny skeletons rained down upon the sea floor the planet became covered in a shell of limestone several miles thick.
Then Eta Carinae flared up due to internal storms. It heated Placet to the point where the oceans dried up. However, they did not escape the planet, only becoming vapor in the atmosphere
When Eta Carinae returned to normal, about 10 million years later, the ocean returned to liquid and rained down. The cool down was gradual and so was the ocean’s return, taking about 50 million years
And in that time the rain collecte in the very slight depressions in the surface which remained remarkably flat overall so there was little erosion. The water trickled through the limestone and formed caves.
Placet’s version of limestone, however was somewhat stronger than Earths. Karst structures were not formed, rather the caves simply became huger and huger
And the oceans drained into them, becoming thus removed from the rain cycle, forming rivers and oceans underground
So Placet is as you see it. A cave planet. Surface solar power stations run the cities underground. The human inhabitants, who arrived about 10 millenia ago, mainly make a living by mining and refining the limestone, unique across the galaxy for making a type of superstrong cement which is also uniquely beautiful
Last edited: