# Floating cities: what about rough seas?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating-cities-what-about-rough-seas/488962>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 10, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating-cities-what-about-rough-seas/488962 "2009-03-10T15:14:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating-cities-what-about-rough-seas/488962/41 "2009-03-16T16:39:11Z")

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> [@robby](#):
>
> In short, there is no surface vessel that people have ever built that is immune to large enough storms.

Some of these concepts look much larger than anything ever built. I may be overestimating their size though, or underestimating ocean wave periods. I’ve never been on a boat at deep sea, so I’m not claiming to know.

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating-cities-what-about-rough-seas/488962/42 "2009-03-16T20:38:48Z")

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> [@snailboy](#):
>
> Some of these concepts look much larger than anything ever built. I may be overestimating their size though, or underestimating ocean wave periods. I’ve never been on a boat at deep sea, so I’m not claiming to know.

The problem isn’t just size. It’s structural strength and rigidity.

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**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating-cities-what-about-rough-seas/488962/43 "2009-03-17T00:35:50Z")

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> [@Lemur866](#):
>
> A floating building anchored in Tokyo bay makes some sort of sense, because real estate in the city of Tokyo is the most expensive in the world.

The Japanese are already building [airports](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Airport) off their coast.

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