Could any man made contraption blow up the Earth?

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by John J. Bannan, Jul 2, 2007.

  1. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    There's also the fact that the moon already crashed into the earth once and it didn't destroy the earth that time (but it sure as hell would have killed every living thing on the planet).
     
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  3. Facial Valued Senior Member

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    Was that sentence your interpretation of the psi.edu link?

    I'm quite aware of the theories and complexity of the moon's formation. Currently the best one, as simulated by a supercomputer, involves a large body (nicknamed 'Orpheus' by some), which most likely wasn't a satellite of the Earth, crashing into Earth at a very specific angle and velocity, which I do not know. Then a splatter is created, and the debris settles into a ring that around the largest piece, which becomes the moon. So I'm also pretty sure that the moon we see into the sky didn't really crash into the earth since it got up there.

    Will anything man-made blow up the entire earth? Or sterilize it? Not a chance at present.
     
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  5. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    Some of it did crash into the earth, and the rest is debris from the collision. But no, the moon, of course, hasn't crashed into the earth since it's been in orbit.
     
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  7. pilpaX amateur-science.com Registered Senior Member

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    I cant find any links or sources about it, but I remember reading about some scientist who proposed that Stalin should keep a oiltanker in the middle of some ocean so If things go bad he could detonate it and then the whole water on oceans would chain react. Luckly Stalin didnt like that idea so much and later scientist proved that there would be only small tsunami.
     
  8. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    Blowing up an oil tanker would cause water to chain react?
    But they proved there'd only "be a small tsunami"?
    The energy release from an oil tanker detonating all at once is totally insignificant in terms of the whole world.
    The shock waves wouldn't even reach shore if it was in mid-ocean.
     
  9. pilpaX amateur-science.com Registered Senior Member

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    I forgot to mention that this oiltanker would be full of nukes... and probably it wasnt staling, cos he didnt have any nukes.
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2007
  10. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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    Even if he did the timing would be critical - if one went off before the others it would cause fratricide and render the others useless.
     
  11. Klitwo Registered Member

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    Yea. A ten million megaton warhead might be able to it. Let's do a 20 million megaton one just to be safe. O.K.?
     
  12. s0meguy Worship me or suffer eternally Valued Senior Member

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    how much megaton is the 'best' warhead ever made?
     
  13. Oli Heute der Enteteich... Registered Senior Member

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  14. eburacum45 Valued Senior Member

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    That's right. And if you look back at my post earlier you will see that you would need 500,000,000,000,000,000,000 Tzar Bomba-type 100 megaton bombs to blow up the Earth completely into separate particles..

    Our planet is held together by gravity- to supply enough energy so that the entire planet is disintegrated would need enough energy to overcome the entire gravitational binding energy of the mass of the Earth. This turns out to be an awful lot of energy in total.

    See this page for more details...
    http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Beam/Calculator.html
     
  15. one_raven God is a Chinese Whisper Valued Senior Member

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    Couldn't you use the gravity to your advantage?
    Placing bombs in the right locations at plate fractures could very well cause geothermic chain reactions, making the whole structure unsound and tear itself apart.
     
  16. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    I guess its possible in theory, but it wont be anything near practical within the forseeable future.
    Also, does it have to be done in one go ? Humans could cause large meteorites to collide with earth, or even moons.
    Anyhow, what relevance does this question have ?
     
  17. weed_eater_guy It ain't broke, don't fix it! Registered Senior Member

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    If nukes couldn't do it, I don't have time right now to look it up, but I wonder how many kgs (or even tonnes) of antimatter you would need to suddenly make appear in the earth's core to make it shatter?
     
  18. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Why blow up another planet when we could terraform it into something that would be usefull?
     
  19. allisone417 i'll be in my room Registered Senior Member

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    "man is capable of as much destruction as he has imagination."
     
  20. one_raven God is a Chinese Whisper Valued Senior Member

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    Being that your text is in quotes, I assume your'e quoting soemone?
    But you don't say who.
     
  21. halo07guy Registered Senior Member

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    Actually, I would think that all you would need is the Moon. When Orpheus crashed, it supposedly took of a good 5 or so % of Earth and exposed the mantel. The impact resulted in the near compleate destruction of Orpheus with only a small amount of the side opposite Proto-Earth remaning. The 5% of the Earth and some of the mantel that was blasted into space formed around the gravity that the remains of Orpheus generated, which would explain why part of the Moon is darker then the other ( from cooled mantel). i would thin that the likliest impact point is the Pacific Ocean, given its huge size and depth. The Marianas Trench could also have been formed by the collision. It also might of cuased primitive extreamophiles to evolve into modern life because of the huge amount of heat from the impact. It is possible Humans are creatures litterally born of violence. The rock from the remains of Orpheus mostly formed around the Earths impact crater. But the rock that didn't form around the impact crater stayed in orbit, subjecting Earth to a barrage of meteorites for a good million or so years. The same also happend to the moon, which traveled through the debris. Eventually, Earth's orbit was cleared of debris.

    My whole point is, given that Orpheus, which was about the same size as Earth, impacted in only a glancing blow, and caused a huge amount of devistation, imagine what would happen if the moon, which is huge compared to the planet, were to make a direct hit against the planet! I would think that had Orpheus made a direct hit, it would of likely shattered Earth. The same could happen if the Moon were to hit.
     
  22. DeepThought Banned Banned

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    Perhaps a series of giant lenses and huge optical amplifiers close to the sun.

    Create a laser powerful enough to slice through (or vaporize) the Earth.

    Then use nuclear bombs to drive the two pieces apart.
     
  23. eburacum45 Valued Senior Member

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    No. It is gravity you are trying to overcome- you can't use the gravity of a planet to overcome its own gravitational binding energy. The interior geothermal energy of the Earth is less than the gravitational binding energy, so you couldn't use it to destroy the Earth either. Mind you, you could use that energy to convert the crust into a molten mess, so that would probably do.
    The planet would be completely uninhabitable, so why bother disassembling it?
     

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