The rise of nanometers

At the same time, the outer pipe of the Qiongzhou Strait Undersea Tunnel was fully connected.

It is about 600 kilometers southeast from Haikou.

The core island group of the Zhongsha Islands, the Zhongsha Atoll, is undergoing another grand project, the Zhongsha Ocean City Project.

In the South China Sea in November, the wind and waves were obviously much stronger.

However, in the large atoll with a tropical climate, the temperature here is still maintained at around 26 to 36 degrees Celsius. There is no land in this clear water and blue sky.

Although the Zhongsha Islands are called an archipelago, there is actually only one island, Huangyan Island, exposed to the sea level. Especially in recent years, sea levels have continued to rise, making the already very small land area even smaller.

As the core island group of the Zhongsha Islands, they are all below the sea level. When the tide goes out, no bit of land is exposed.

However, this is a very important area in the Zhongsha Islands. Not only is the strategic location very important, but the geological conditions are also suitable for land reclamation.

Zhongsha Atoll is oval-shaped, with a length of about 140 kilometers from northeast to southwest and a width of about 60 kilometers. It has 26 named reefs with an average depth of 9 to 26 meters.

Compared with the conditions of Huangyan Island, it is very suitable for land reclamation.

However, considering the large-scale reclamation of land, it is somewhat unrealistic. It requires a lot of sand and soil, and the financial burden is also very large.

In addition, the marine ecological issues of Zhongsha Atoll must be taken into consideration.

The scale of land reclamation here is limited to 100 square kilometers. This restriction led to the emergence of another plan.

That is the emergence of the Ocean City project. The Academy of Engineering was planning this project last year. From the design of the super highway and the Qiongzhou Strait Undersea Tunnel, they found that the structural strength of super materials can fully meet the requirements for building sea dams. .

The average depth of large atolls is only 9 to 26 meters. Completely along the distribution of the reefs, some sea-blocking dams are built, and then the seawater inside the dams is drained to form a piece of land under the sea level.

On the south reef where Shitang is connected to the reef, a 3-square-kilometer land area has been reclaimed. In addition to a 30,000-ton reclamation ship, there is also a 200,000-ton reclamation ship not far away. Engineering vessel.

On the engineering ship, workers mixed the impurities filtered out of the seawater (mainly sodium chloride and potassium chloride) with special nano-silica to form the base material of the super building material, and then filled it into the formwork interlayer.

The template sandwich is made of aluminum alloy film and silicon nanometers. A three-dimensional aluminum-iron nanogrid is also arranged inside the sandwich to ensure the strength, corrosion resistance and sealing of the material.

The engineering vessels carry templates, nanogrids, special nanosilica, and some catalysts. More than 90% of the base materials are sea salt sourced locally.

Fortunately, the South China Sea is a marginal sea of ​​the Pacific Ocean, not a closed inland lake like the Caspian Sea. Otherwise, the frantic extraction of sea salt by engineering ships would definitely cause large-scale desalination of seawater.

This salt-pumping land-building engineering ship was jointly built by China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation and Suiren Group. It cost as much as 5.8 billion yuan and can refine 500,000 to 600,000 tons of sea salt every day.

It has been operating in the large atoll for more than four months, refining a total of 54.31 million tons of sea salt, causing the seawater salinity near the Zhongsha Atoll to drop slightly by about 3.7%.

However, due to the continuous exchange of seawater supply, the salinity of nearby seawater has gradually formed a dynamic balance.

This scale of refining sea salt is, at most, like adding fresh water from the Yangtze River to the vast Pacific Ocean. Naturally, it can quickly adapt to this situation.

The construction party responsible for the project is the specially established Nanhai Construction Group.

The group's general manager Xie Yingwu and chief engineer Du Run have built a high-walled fort on the 3 square kilometers of land reclamation on the southern reef of Shitang.

Xie Yingwu stood on the city wall and looked at the construction situation with a telescope.

Du Run on the side was discussing the construction plan of Shitang Town with several designers and engineers. On the seabed topographic map on the table, it can be seen that Shitang is connected to the reefs, which is composed of three small reefs in the shape of a Chinese character.

As long as these three reefs are connected and the water inside is drained, a lowland can be formed.

In addition to reclaiming land and blocking the sea to create land, there are also high-rise buildings built directly in the sea on the planning and design plans of Du Run and others.

Taking advantage of the shallow water of the atoll and building high-rise buildings directly in the sea, it is possible to create a Venice on the sea.

Putting down the telescope in his hand, Xie Yingwu turned around and asked: "Old Du, when do you think Shitang Town will be completed?"

Du Run thought for a while and replied: "Currently, a quarter of the sea dam in Shitang Town has been completed. It may take about 12 to 13 months to complete the remaining project."

"Can you increase the speed?"

Du Run shook his head: "To increase the speed, we can only increase the number of engineering ships. The problem is that a large amount of desalinated seawater exceeds the bearing capacity of the surrounding ocean, which may lead to the death of a large number of surrounding marine life."

Xie Yingwu also knows that he is too eager for quick success. Recently, the Academy of Sciences has dispatched a marine ecological scientific expedition team, which is paying close attention to the marine ecology of the large atoll.

Du Run knew that Xie Yingwu was from the navy and understood the other party's eagerness and persuaded him:

"Don't be too anxious. We have great advantages in the South China Sea. Five ground effect transport ships will be in service next year, and two of them will be used in Sansha City's transportation."

"I know." Xie Yingwu knew that at present, he could only focus on construction and expand the land area of ​​the large atoll through a multi-pronged approach.

The strategic location of the large atoll is very important. It connects the Paracel Islands to the west, Huangyan Island to the east, Dongsha Islands to the north and Nansha Islands to the south.

The completion of this place can completely control the South China Sea, and at the same time connect the major islands in the South China Sea. With the cooperation of large transport aircraft and ground effect transport ships, it will no longer be as out of reach as before.

If combined with Khmer's Koh Kong Island base and Siam's Phang Nga base, an island chain will be formed to firmly lock up the Indochina Peninsula.

Moreover, the large atoll with huge potential for land creation is very suitable to serve as the capital of Sansha City and can also become a core transportation line supply point.

With such a high strategic position, Xie Yingwu naturally hopes that the large atoll area will be built as soon as possible.

However, you can't eat hot tofu in a hurry. Whether it is land reclamation, sea blockage, or offshore construction, it will take time to build.

The land reclamation area in the Dajiao area is 100 square kilometers, the sea blockage land area is 120 square kilometers, and the offshore construction area is 5 square kilometers, totaling 225 square kilometers.

There are a total of 7 towns, namely: Shitang Town, Zhongbei Town, Nanfei Town (main urban area), Wandering Town, Anding Town, Huaxia Town, and Paihong Town.

When the land is completed, a sea-blocking dam can be built to form a cross-sea bridge to connect the island towns.

Tourism, transport and port services, aquaculture and fishing can be developed here.

With the emergence of various technologies, the large atoll can even become a maritime city in the future and an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.

The construction of the Zhongsha Atoll is just the beginning. It will also be expanded to the Nansha Islands and can be directly copied.

The surrounding children were naturally aware of the action here, but they were unable to stop it, so they simply pretended not to see it.