The HC’s vegetation will be planted in normal environment of soil. On average the thickness of the soil will be about cm ( in) and will cover a total area of hectares ( acres). The volumetric total of the soil is calculated to be about million m3 ( billion ft3). The following table shows the projected soil distribution throughout an HC.
HC Soil Totals
-
Soil Provenance Original Sources Commercial Sources
NJK Mission Campuses Lands
The source of this can come from three potential places. The first of these sources would come from the lands that will be purchased by the NJK for the location of its
Mission Campuses.
From these
campuses, averaging about
hectares
( acres)
each, the excavated soil from the foundations/basement space of the campus’ buildings would be transferred to the
Holy Cities. If these buildings on the campuses take up about
of the total campus area then the total foundations/basements of each of these building would be about
m
( ft)
deep.
The HC’s soil can also be composed from scratch by combining the various elements needed to make healthy soil, namely: sand, clay, silt, nutrients/organic material, air and water. These materials can easily be obtained from the abundant sediments of the ocean floor which are in most areas kilometers/miles thick and from seawater.
The following tables show the expected volumes and weights for each of these elements that would be needed to make a medium loam (see composition table
here)
for 1 and for
HC soil needs.
Soil Composition
One Holy City
Holy Cities
A third potential source would be to purchase soil from countries willing to sell it. If a probable price of
USD
per metric ton is used the total cost for the
HC’s would be about
(USD)
or
per capita. This works out to
per hectare
(
per acre).
This soil would not have to be of top soil quality as it could be enriched later on,
at the HC’s using the abundant nutrients found in ocean waters.
May 28, 2008