Some comments and questions I'd like to bounce off of the lot of you in regards to this discussion of "Is it just the US that's swapped out or more?" Let's see what sticks to the wall, shall we?
So in the original version, the "lower 48" and a couple of states of Mexico are swapped out with 191.
Not any part of Canada at all?
That's VERY interesting.
See - I can understand Hawaii and Alaska not being taken along for the "ride" if this was the result of a dimensional "accident". You'd have to have more than one "accident" take place. Unless the dimensional field radius was big enough. If it was big enough to include Hawaii and Alaska, and it followed a regular circular (or globe - the field might swap out everything below the surface too to a depth of hundreds of miles) wavefront then you'd be dragging the entirety of Canada and Mexico along for the ride as well. No - scratch that. If it was a field big enough to encompass the lower 48, Alaska and Hawaii, it would be big enough to take the entire North American continent, a good chunk of South America, and possibly as far out as Iceland, depending on where the centerpoint of the dimensional field was.
If the field was only large enough to encompass the "lower 48" in a globe of effect radiating from a single point, it would likely still take about half of Canada and Mexico with it. (Maybe even Cuba, Jamaica and Bermuda as well? Haven't looked at a globe or able to draw this out.)
But here's where it gets even more interesting. From everything I've read so far, the border of the dimensional swap ends right on the border between Canada and the US. It's implied that it follows the coastline as well.
That's no circular event effect. That's specific and intelligent. That's a major plan right there.
So - HOW? And WHY? Those are the two biggest mysteries. Maybe a WHO is involved as well.
I suggest that it be worked out, at least in thumbnail fashion as a background element. You don't have to write it as a story element. (Or you can allude to it, but you may only want to hang a lampshade on it via characters doing some wild-ass theorizing like what we're doing here.)
Another minor thought: If this is literally swapping out chunks of land from one timestream to another, consider this -
There have been a number of earthquakes that have happened in our timeline that have not yet happened in the 191 timeline. Because they are about 70 years behind. What's the effect when the parts of the San Andreas faultline get "unhooked" from the parts of the tectonic plates that go beyond the borders of the field effect?
Might both the 191 USA and the Fen-USA in the other dimension have to deal with a massive earthquake in each version of Southern California? What about the Mississippi river plate? Or the one in New England?
How -deep- does the effect extend to? Does it intersect the magma layer of the Earth? How far out from the coast? The Great Lakes? I have this image of lava seeping up from the bottom of Lake Superior and out at the edge of the continental shelf...
So in the original version, the "lower 48" and a couple of states of Mexico are swapped out with 191.
Not any part of Canada at all?
That's VERY interesting.
See - I can understand Hawaii and Alaska not being taken along for the "ride" if this was the result of a dimensional "accident". You'd have to have more than one "accident" take place. Unless the dimensional field radius was big enough. If it was big enough to include Hawaii and Alaska, and it followed a regular circular (or globe - the field might swap out everything below the surface too to a depth of hundreds of miles) wavefront then you'd be dragging the entirety of Canada and Mexico along for the ride as well. No - scratch that. If it was a field big enough to encompass the lower 48, Alaska and Hawaii, it would be big enough to take the entire North American continent, a good chunk of South America, and possibly as far out as Iceland, depending on where the centerpoint of the dimensional field was.
If the field was only large enough to encompass the "lower 48" in a globe of effect radiating from a single point, it would likely still take about half of Canada and Mexico with it. (Maybe even Cuba, Jamaica and Bermuda as well? Haven't looked at a globe or able to draw this out.)
But here's where it gets even more interesting. From everything I've read so far, the border of the dimensional swap ends right on the border between Canada and the US. It's implied that it follows the coastline as well.
That's no circular event effect. That's specific and intelligent. That's a major plan right there.
So - HOW? And WHY? Those are the two biggest mysteries. Maybe a WHO is involved as well.
I suggest that it be worked out, at least in thumbnail fashion as a background element. You don't have to write it as a story element. (Or you can allude to it, but you may only want to hang a lampshade on it via characters doing some wild-ass theorizing like what we're doing here.)
Another minor thought: If this is literally swapping out chunks of land from one timestream to another, consider this -
There have been a number of earthquakes that have happened in our timeline that have not yet happened in the 191 timeline. Because they are about 70 years behind. What's the effect when the parts of the San Andreas faultline get "unhooked" from the parts of the tectonic plates that go beyond the borders of the field effect?
Might both the 191 USA and the Fen-USA in the other dimension have to deal with a massive earthquake in each version of Southern California? What about the Mississippi river plate? Or the one in New England?
How -deep- does the effect extend to? Does it intersect the magma layer of the Earth? How far out from the coast? The Great Lakes? I have this image of lava seeping up from the bottom of Lake Superior and out at the edge of the continental shelf...