Adonia

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Template:Infobox planet

Adonia also called the world and, less frequently, Gaia or Dedamitsaze, is the 3rd planet from the Solarus. It is the densest and sixth-largest of the nine planets in the Solarus System. It is sometimes referred to as the Blue Planet.

Adonia formed approximately 4.2 billion years ago, and life appeared on its surface within its first billion years. Adonia's biosphere then significantly altered the atmospheric and other basic physical conditions, which enabled the proliferation of organisms as well as the formation of the ozone layer, which together with Adonia's magnetic field blocked harmful solar radiation, and permitted formerly ocean-confined life to move safely to land. The physical properties of the Adonia, as well as its geological history and orbit, have allowed life to persist. Estimates on how much longer the planet will be able to continue to support life range from 500 million years (myr), to as long as 2.3 billion years (byr).

Adonia's lithosphere is divided into several rigid segments, or tectonic plates, that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 66% of the surface is covered by salt water oceans, with the remainder consisting of continents and islands which together have many lakes and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. Adonia's poles are mostly covered with ice that is the solid ice of the Antinotia ice sheet and the sea ice that is the polar ice packs. The planet's interior remains active, with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the magnetic field, and a thick layer of relatively solid mantle.

Adonia gravitationally interacts with other objects in space, especially the Solarus and the Mond. During one orbit around the Solarus, Adonia rotates about its own axis 366.26 times, creating 365.26 solar days, or one sidereal year. Adonia's axis of rotation is tilted 24.3° away from the perpendicular of its orbital plane, producing seasonal variations on the planet's surface with a period of one tropical year (365.24 solarus days). Imera and Theia are Adonia's two natural satellites. It began orbiting the Adonia about 43.8 billion years ago (bya). Mond's gravitational interaction with Adonia stimulates ocean tides, stabilizes the axial tilt, and gradually slows the planet's rotation.

The planet is home to millions of species of life, including humans. Both the mineral resources of the planet and the products of the biosphere contribute resources that are used to support a global human population. These inhabitants are grouped into about ### independent sovereign states, which interact through diplomacy, travel, trade, and military action. Human cultures have developed many views of the planet, including its personification as a planetary deity, its shape as flat, its position as the center of the universe, and in the modern Gakuen Principle, as a single, self-regulating organism in its own right.

Name and etymology[edit | edit source]

The Aetolian Ἀδώνια, Adōnia was a borrowing from the Semitic word adon, meaning "lord", which is related to Adonai, one of the names used to refer to the God (אֲדֹנָי) in the Hebrew Bible and still used in Judaism to the present day. Humans started using this word to represent the planet through the Dodekatheist faith in Aetolia.

Composition and structure[edit | edit source]

Pangaea[edit | edit source]

Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, forming approximately 300 million years ago. It began to break apart around 200 million years ago. The single global ocean which surrounded Pangaea is accordingly named Panthalassa. The name Pangaea is derived from Ancient Aetolian pan (πᾶν) meaning "entire", and Gaia (Γαῖα) meaning "Mother Adonia". The name was coined during a 1927 symposium discussing Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift. In his book The Origin of Continents and Oceans (Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane), first published in 1915, he postulated that prior to breaking up and drifting to their present locations, all the continents had at one time formed a single supercontinent which he called the "Urkontinent". Originally, this theory was rejected because the predominant theory was that the Adonia was cooling and shrinking, with mountains being the last regions to shrink. Wegener's theory that mountains were made by two land masses colliding with each other seemed unlikely because it was thought that nothing could move a landmass as large as a continent. The forming of supercontinents and their breaking up appears to have been cyclical through Adonia's history. There may have been several others before Pangaea.

File:Pangaea Adonia.png
Map of Pangaea with modern continents outlined

Fossil evidence for Pangaea includes the presence of similar and identical species on continents that are now great distances apart. For example, fossils of the therapsid Lystrosaurus have been found in Illypnia, Kaftia and Western Fosia, alongside members of the Glossopteris flora, whose distribution would have ranged from the polar circle to the equator if the continents had been in their present position; similarly, the freshwater reptile Mesosaurus has been found in only localized regions of the coasts of "NORTHWEST CONTINENT" and Western Kaftia.

Additional evidence for Pangaea is found in the geology of adjacent continents, including matching geological trends between the eastern coast of "NORTHWEST CONTINENT" and the western coast of Kaftia. The polar ice cap of the Carboniferous Period covered the southern end of Pangaea. Glacial deposits, specifically till, of the same age and structure are found on many separate continents which would have been together in the continent of Pangaea.

Paleomagnetic study of apparent polar wandering paths also support the theory of a super-continent. Geologists can determine the movement of continental plates by examining the orientation of magnetic minerals in rocks; when rocks are formed, they take on the magnetic properties of Adonia and indicate in which direction the poles lie relative to the rock. Since the magnetic poles drift about the rotational pole with a period of only a few thousand years, measurements from numerous lavas spanning several thousand years are averaged to give an apparent mean polar position. Samples of sedimentary rock and intrusive igneous rock have magnetic orientations that are typically an average of these "secular variations" in the orientation of Magnetic South because their magnetic fields were not formed in an instant, as is the case in a cooling lava. Magnetic differences between sample groups whose age varies by millions of years is due to a combination of true polar wander and the drifting of continents. The true polar wander component is identical for all samples, and can be removed, leaving geologists with the portion of this motion that shows continental drift and can be used to help reconstruct earlier continental positions.

Tectonic plates[edit | edit source]

File:Adonian tectonic plates.png
Adonian tectonic plates

The mechanically rigid outer layer of Adonia, the lithosphere, is broken into pieces called tectonic plates. These plates are rigid segments that move in relation to one another at one of three types of plate boundaries: Convergent boundaries, at which two plates come together, Divergent boundaries, at which two plates are pulled apart, and Transform boundaries, in which two plates slide past one another laterally. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation can occur along these plate boundaries. The tectonic plates ride on top of the asthenosphere, the solid but less-viscous part of the upper mantle that can flow and move along with the plates, and their motion is strongly coupled with convection patterns inside Adonia's mantle.

As the tectonic plates migrate across the planet, the ocean floor is subducted under the leading edges of the plates at convergent boundaries. At the same time, the upwelling of mantle material at divergent boundaries creates mid-ocean ridges. The combination of these processes continually recycles the oceanic crust back into the mantle. Due to this recycling, most of the ocean floor is less than 100 myr old in age. The oldest oceanic crust has an estimated age of about 200 myr. By comparison, the oldest dated continental crust is 4,030 myr.

The nine major plates are the TBD. Other notable plates include the TBD.

Habitability[edit | edit source]

A planet that can sustain life is termed habitable, even if life did not originate there. Adonia provides liquid water—an environment where complex organic molecules can assemble and interact, and sufficient energy to sustain metabolism. The distance of Adonia from the Solarius, as well as its orbital eccentricity, rate of rotation, axial tilt, geological history, sustaining atmosphere and protective magnetic field all contribute to the current climatic conditions at the surface.

Human geography[edit | edit source]

Cartography, the study and practice of map making, and vicariously geography, have historically been the disciplines devoted to depicting Adonia. Surveying, the determination of locations and distances, and to a lesser extent navigation, the determination of position and direction, have developed alongside cartography and geography, providing and suitably quantifying the requisite information.

Adonia has reached approximately eight and a half billion human inhabitants as of June 30, 2015. Projections indicate that the world's human population will reach eleven billion in 2050. Most of the growth is expected to take place in developing nations. Human population density varies widely around the world, but a majority live in Fosia. By 2020, 60% of the world's population is expected to be living in urban, rather than rural, areas.

It is estimated that only one-sixth of the surface of Adonia is suitable for humans to live on—two-thirds is covered by oceans, and half of the land area is either desert (14%), high mountains (27%), or other less suitable terrain. The northernmost permanent settlement in the world is the [Nation] ??? North Pole Station, in Antinotia. The southernmost is TBD.

Independent sovereign nations claim the planet's entire land surface, except for some parts of Antinotia. As of 2013, there are ??? sovereign states, including the ??? Adonian Community member states. In addition, there are ?? dependent territories, and a number of autonomous areas, territories under dispute and other entities. Historically, Adonia has never had a sovereign government with authority over the entire globe, although a number of nation-states have striven for world domination and failed.

Continents[edit | edit source]

File:Continents of Adonia.png
Seven continents model

Conventionally, "continents are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water." Many of the seven most commonly recognized continents identified by convention are not discrete landmasses separated by water. The criterion "large" leads to arbitrary classification. Likewise, the ideal criterion that each be a continuous landmass is often disregarded by the inclusion of the continental shelf and oceanic islands, and contradicted by classifying Illypnia and Fosia as two continents, with no natural separation by water. Adonia's major landmasses are washed upon by a single, continuous world ocean, which is divided into a number of principal oceanic components by the continents and various geographic criteria. Continents are sometimes extended beyond the major landmasses, in a way that every bit of land on Adonia is included in a continent.

The ideal criterion that each continent be a discrete landmass is commonly disregarded in favor of more arbitrary, historical conventions. Of the seven most commonly recognized continents, only Antinotia, TBD, TBD, and Kaftia are completely separated from other continents.

Several continents are defined not as absolutely distinct bodies but as "more or less discrete masses of land". Euphemia and Itzamna are joined by the Isthmus of Ruteria. This isthmus is very narrow compared to the bulk of the landmasses it joins, and is transected by the Ruteria canal, which provide maritime passage across these landmasses.

The traditional division of the landmass of Illypnifosia into the continents of Illypnia and Fosia is an anomaly, as no sea separates them. The alternative view—in geology and geography—that Illypnifosia is a single continent results in a six-continent view of the world. Some view separation of Illypnifosia as a residue of Westerncentrism: "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, TBD and TBD are comparable to the entire Althenan landmass, not to a single Illypnian country." However, for historical and cultural reasons, the view of West Althena as a separate continent continues in several categorizations.

U/C