A shaped atomic weapon charge to stop tsunami

As I pointed out, the OP is an SBI.
That was not intended as mockery, and I apologise if it is taken as such. I was merely trying to convey reality in a way that could not be mistaken.

We all have the occasional SBI, and it is good to have this pointed out. Adding a second tsunami to the first cannot help. A tsunami cannot be controlled in that way, we merely end up with two, rather than one, devastating tsunamis.

There is a giant mountain, an occasionally active volcano, in the Canary Islands, with half its mass poised to fall into the sea. If an eruption happens, and the mass topples into the sea, the resultant tsunami will wipe out the whole American eastern seaboard. It will also devastate the Caribbean, and western Europe, since those waves go in all directions. There is no way we can, even in theory, prevent or mitigate this, or any other, tsunami.

Fortunately, there is no reason to suspect that it will happen this side of a million years, though it might, in theory, occur tomorrow. Life is a lottery!

 

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Even if you could direct an atomic explosion how could you get it to where it might do some good in time? I would guess that placing them ahead of time would work, but what could go wrong with that? Having armed nukes taking wear and tear at the bottom of the ocean sounds like a piece of cake. Do you have any idea how close to the coast line would they have to be?

Let's use Japan as an example, that quake was very close, it didn't take the tsunami more than 20 – 30 minutes to reach land. Not much time to ask “should we blow the nukes?”. Maybe 10 minutes, after all they would have to be placed far enough out to sea maybe at least 20 minutes closer to the wave source

For the life of me I can't see how any kind of a nuke could be much help in this situation?

 

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Creating another wave that could cancel the wave which was approaching is what my intentions were.

But now I can understand that it won't be feasable to do this for many reasons that have been stated. :truce:

Just a last thought , how about just dropping it on the Tsunami wave itself, would that have any affect or not? :shrug:

 

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No.

 

Actually there is one thing that could be tried.

It requires laying across the seabed pipework similar to that used in fish tanks for allowing bubble walls. The hypothesis is that if a pending Tsunami is coming and entire range of ocean could have multiple bubble walls. The bubbles reduce the density of the water if done in a high enough volume (Although they would increase the volume of the water/airbubble mix), which means a tsunami wouldn't be able to equate and enmass the liquid volume required to continue as a tsunami (A tsunami would theoretically move liquid into occupying the volume that the bubbles occupied, lessening it's force)

However there are many points that undermine feasibility, like for instance that it would only work in shallow areas. (The deeper that such a method was applied, the smaller the air bubbles and the greater then engineering feat to produce bubbles in the first place.)

It's also a fact that any water surface vessels would also likely sink in the area where the bubbles are created. (Funnily enough, it would be interesting to surround a country like Somalia with such a bubble wall as the pirates wouldn't be able to travel in boats across it)

 

Good approach to the problem.

ie

To imagine.
What kind of conditions make it difficult for waves to form or be maintained?
And how do you make those conditions?

I doubt that any solution is feasibly useful, but it's a good theoretical problem.

 

Possibly the best defence against Tsunamis is the one already used.
Tall rigid walls.
see http://paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/Demos/reflect/reflect.html


The bubbles idea will reduce density presumably, and produce taller and swifter waves with the same energy.

 

This is where you need something similar to the engineer testing bay that was used for the "bouncing bomb" (Incidentally the actual design of which gives an interesting perspective of what happens with "Shockwaves" when a detonation occurs, after all it was used to focus a blast from the base of a Dam not the top and used the volume of water behind the dam to increase it's potential energy.)

In fact some Secondary and High Schools to my knowledge have small wave machines that tilt back and forth for sedimentary research, again something that simple could give clue if "bubbles" would actually work. (albeit volume, mass and scaling would be different)

 

I imagine this would be pretty costly over a 500mile range or so? The Japanese didn't even manage to maintain their flood gates (jammed in one town leading to the deaths of 30 odd firemen trying to close it by hand.) What chance is there that they would have been able to keep such a system ready for use?

 

That is just one of the feasibility points of any plan.

There are alternatives to pumping airflow, like for instance using a compound that makes bubbles (Similar to a sodium tablet, however it would have to be identified what can be put into an ocean that doesn't pollute or raise a particular chemical level).
Such a compound could be dropped using an aircraft similar to "crop dusting" in front of an impending Tsunami, of course the problem with this is Tsunami's can have weather systems attached making flight perilous.

it would also have to be identified:

How quickly the compound reacts to release bubbles?
The duration the compound will release bubbles?
How quickly the compound "Sinks" into the ocean?

 

Can't see that working to well. Too much energy needed. And the bulk of chemicals needed can't be good.

What about somekind of controlled magma release using under crust nukes?

I really think we are fighting a losing battle with this one. The only way to stop a tsunami is to stop the build up of potential energy/pressure in the crust itself before it can be realeased. Stop the quake occurring in one go. One way to do this is by peppering the fault with smallish nukes to release the pressure through controlled smaller shocks.

Another way is to remove the friction between the plates somehow. So the pressure/potential energy doesn't have time to build up to a big slip at all. This could be achieved by greasing the fault somehow with water and or oil. Or creating some kind of genetically engineered creature/bacteria to get down there and convert rock to a greasy compound at high temperatures. Or some other idea around this.

 

Stop a tsunami?
Easy.
Get it to join SciForums. That'll bring it down a peg or two and halt it in its tracks.

"Come on wave, can you actually prove you're supposed to crush this coastline?"
"What makes you think there's a cause for you being here?"

 

Who gives permission then?

I reckon the wave would need to ask MY permission before crushing me with random debris. I still have plenty of work to do here at SF. Though the random debris in the 'Religion' sub forum seems to be equally troublesome. Going from believing in god to believing in the sentience of waves doesn't seem such a great leap. Maybe they quantum compute?

 

QED. And the wave starts to slow down...

"Because I'm a f*cking tsunami dude. That's what I do! Er, isn't it?"

 

The trouble is, tsunamis are deaf. They have to be, or the noise they make would destroy their hearing. So how ya gonna tell them to ask permission?

 

They could be Motörhead fans, in which case they'd be used to loud noises.

Tell 'em Lemmy says it's not cool to kill.

 

'Unacceptable. God is in my fucking head God damn it. How dare you? How very dare you?'

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I would tap my foot. That'd work. Vibrations at just the right frequency.

'If I believe it hard enough it will happen' -Halfa Brain

 

Yes "THEY" could if they wanted to, and also create shaped flying hippos to crush Oprah Winfrey. They can also solve all the X-Files and just put us all to sleep by negating our daily worries. Of course.

 

This is the problem, you are trying to fight energy with energy, where as I am trying to look towards a method of dissipation.

I would of suggested an "Artificial Kelp" tethered to the ocean surface, however the problem is that a Tsunami for the most part is actually due to differences in movement at different depths due to lesser resistance at the surface level. It basically means underwater walls won't stop a Tsunami, if anything they just increase the speed of momentum in the waters surface layers.