How do the flying islands in Avatar stay in place?
I've watched movie "Avatar" few times. In my opinion it's one really good movie but every time I watch it I wonder how the hell that pieces of ground or "flying islands" can be in the air? Is there any explanation for that?
And if they can somehow fly, how is it even possible that they stay in one place?
Best Answer
You can see how in Parker Selfridge's office:
James Cameron's original scriptment had this to say:
Here's how it works:
Polyphemis (the massive planet around which Pandora revolves) has a mother of magnetosphere... a naturally occurring magnetic field a million times more powerful than Earth's.
- As Pandora rotates and revolves through this field, its molten iron core generates its own field, with "cells" or vortices which are small regions of intensely powerful magnetic force at the surface.
Added to this unique phenomenon is another... Pandora is blessed with a naturally occurring substance a million times more precious than gold. Its joke name of "unobtanium" has stuck, over the years.
Unobtanium is a rare-earth mineral, formed volcanically, which is a roomtemperature superconductor.
- The room temperature superconductor has been the "snark" of modern materials science... a substance which transmits electricity with zero resistance, but at normal temperatures, rather than the liquid-helium cooled superconductors of human science.
Unobtanium does not exist in our solar system. It is unique to Pandora. And it is the reason to go there... the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow bridge.
Another interesting property of superconducting materials is that they will levitate in a powerful magnetic field.
This magnetic levitation, or maglev, effect has been used to lift trains and run them without wheels since the late 1980's.
On Pandora the effect causes huge outcroppings of unobtanium to rip loose from the surface and float in the magnetic vortices. These floating islands circulate slowly in the magnetic currents, like icebergs at sea, scraping against each other and the towering mesa-like mountains of the region.
The RDA originally was mining the mountains, but after one mountain was mined from the bottom too much, it became top heavy and flipped over, killing a huge number of workers and ruining much equipment. After this incident the RDA stuck to mining more safe locations of the substance.
Pictures about "How do the flying islands in Avatar stay in place?"
How is Pandora floating?
Mountains float. Yes, I know this sounds ridiculous, but they do. They float on the Mantle tens of kilometres beneath our feet. The best definition of the height of a mountain is probably from the bottom of it's roots in the crust, to the top of the peaks.Do floating mountains really float?
What most people don't know is that much of Pandora's landscape was modeled after a real place \u2013 Zhangjiajie in the Hunan province of China. The gorgeous quartz-sandstone pillars of Zhangjiajie (specifically, the 3,544 foot high "Southern Sky Column") became the basis for the floating "Hallelujah Mountains" of Pandora.How are there floating mountains in Avatar?
The Zhangjiajie's Mountains are called by locals The Floating Mountains because when it gets foggy, they look like they were floating in the air. This view is incredible and it certainly leaves many tourists speechless. For this reason, the Zhangjiajie Park is listed as UNESCO World Heritage site.Avatar (2009) - The best scene - Introducing Hallelujah (Floating) Mountains
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Answer 2
From james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com
The Hallelujah Mountains (Na'vi name: Ayram alusìng meaning "Floating Mountains") are floating islands that circulate slowly in the magnetic currents like icebergs at sea, scraping against each other and the towering mesa-like mountains of the region. On Pandora, huge outcroppings of unobtanium rip loose from the surface and float in the magnetic vortices due to the Meissner Effect.
James Cameron said that it was the Huang Shan mountains that inspired him to create the Hallelujah Mountains, which would explain the similar appearance.(It looks similar but they obviously not flying mountains).
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Images: Valentin Perret, Oleksandr Pidvalnyi, Asad Photo Maldives, Asad Photo Maldives