"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> schreef in bericht 
news:4c1f8f9c$1@news.povray.org...
> Thomas de Groot wrote:
>> I should look this up of course, but I seem to remember indeed that the 
>> Rim Wall was carved into mountain shapes. In the later books, spill 
>> mountains were added too for the necessary feeding of rivers.
>
> Indeed. ALtho one must wonder why.

For a simple, geological reason: All the dirt transported by the rivers and 
eroded from the landscape would soon fill the seas and oceans. So a feedback 
system is installed which transports the deposited sediments from the oceans 
back to the rim and on "spill" mountains, which in turn are eroded by 
rivers, completing the cycle. Thus a balance is achieved and the original 
ring floor is not exposed.

Spill mountains did not appear in the first book but were a later addition 
because Larry Niven realized the problem. In the same way, I think that the 
description of the Rim Walls evolves from the first book till the later 
ones.

Thomas

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