Does the South China Sea have the conditions to fill Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef to 100 square kilometers? How many years does it take to fill in?

At the pier of Mischief Reef, there are large red characters clearly written along the way: "I am determined to bear the great responsibility of the nation and will die to cast the sea god needle." Today, the Meiji Reef not only has an increased green area, but also has the Meiji Lighthouse. Surface objects, a dedicated airport has also been built. Likewise, the airport, hospital and sports fields on Fiery Cross Reef were all built many years ago.

As the name suggests, Fiery Cross Island is an island formed by sand reclamation on Fiery Cross Reef, while Mischief Island is an artificial island formed by sand reclamation on Mischief Reef. At present, the permanent land area of ??Yongshu Island is 2.8 square kilometers, the permanent land area of ??Meiji Island is 5.66 square kilometers, and the island with the second largest reclaimed area in the Nansha Islands is actually Subi Island with a permanent land area of ??4.3 square kilometers. , machine factories were built on these three islands.

Does the area of ??Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef allow the reclamation of 100 square kilometers of islands?

Based on the current situation, the islands at the southern end of the South China Sea do not have the conditions to be filled in to 100 square kilometers. The reasons include at least the following points:

First of all, Mischief Reef was originally a coral atoll. It was oval-shaped when viewed from a height, with a length of about 6 kilometers from north to south and about 9 kilometers from east to west. A simple calculation shows that the area of ????this atoll is about 56.6 square kilometers. As mentioned before, the current area of ??Meiji Island on Meiji Reef is only 5.66 square kilometers. Not to mention that there is also the most complete and largest lagoon in the Nansha Islands in this reef. The total area of ??the reef itself is only 50 It's more than square kilometers, so the reef doesn't have that much fillable area at all.

As for Fiery Cross Reef, the area of ??this large atoll is indeed relatively large, reaching 108 square kilometers. The maximum width of the reef is about 7.8 kilometers, and the length has also reached 26 kilometers. Yongshu Reef The sub-reefs of the reef are relatively independent. The current Yongshu Island is actually built in the southwest of this giant reef. The island area of ??2.8 square kilometers is temporarily equivalent to 64% of the total area of ??the southwest reef.

However, most of the reefs of Fiery Cross Reef are 0.5 to 1 meter underwater. Only at low tide can you have the opportunity to see many reefs. The southwest reef is actually its main reef. This is probably why this area was chosen for filling. Of course, if other reefs of Fiery Cross Reef are sand blown and reclaimed in the future, the so-called Fiery Cross Islands will be formed. However, there are also many shallow lakes on the Yongshu Reef, which is more than 100 square kilometers, and the deepest place is about 40 meters. This means that it is not easy to fill in the 100 square kilometers of islands on the Yongshu Reef. thing.

How many years will it take to fill in an island of 100 square kilometers?

Since we need to estimate the time, it is better to refer to the previous progress. At present, we can understand that the reefs that were filled in the Nansha at that time were not only Mischief Reef and Fiery Cross Reef, but also Chigua Reef, Huayang Reef, Gaven Reef, Subi Reef and Dongmen Reef, as well as the Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef we are talking about today, their filling time was from January 2014 to May of the following year respectively. and January to June 2015.

The permanent land area of ??Meiji Island is about twice the permanent land area of ??Yongshu Island, but the length of time it takes for the two reefs to fill in the islands is quite different. The filling of Yongshu Island The island was smaller, but took more than a year to complete. This shows that although they are all sand blowing and reclamation, there are differences in the degree of difficulty in the actual operation. Moreover, it was the "Sky Whale" that was performing sand blowing and reclamation operations on Yongshu Reef at that time. This engineering ship could be Known as an island-building artifact.

Different from coastal city reclamation, it is much more difficult to create islands by blowing sand from Nansha. The reef is the basis for reclamation, and it is not possible to fill it in however you want. Moreover, the impact on the surrounding ecology was also taken into consideration when reclamation was carried out in Nansha. Before these works were carried out, scientists in various fields conducted assessments through data and research. We not only had to reclaim the small islands, but also ensured that the surrounding The ecological environment will not be greatly affected and will be restored to its original state within a limited period of time.

In the past, our sand blowing and reclamation technology was not mature enough, so the sand blowing and reclamation in Nansha, my country mainly started after 2013. However, judging from the current situation, my country's reclamation Technology is similar to that of Japan and the Netherlands, and there may be some leadership in certain areas. But this does not mean that we have to build islands everywhere. The reclamation of Nansha Island is of great significance. It is convenient for the people and is conducive to national security. When we carry out every step of important work, we need to control possible situations. If the island is not in the big , but that everything is available.