Theory on Exploding Plants (748 hits)
Category: Science & EnvironmentalRating: 0.72 on 14 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Greg Webb <trunks_gw.at.yahoo.com> (View user info) at 2005-12-16 13:01:43 EST
I happened to see an excellent piece on the Discovery Channel yesterday about "Super Volcanoes". Yellowstone National Park is such a volcano.
It was just recently (within the decade) discovered to be basically the caldera of a mother-huge volcano of the exploding type ... the most violent type ... Krakatoa style.
No such volcano has exploded in historical times and the program hinted at the possibility that evidence for a human population collapse about 70-80 thousand years ago might be attributed to the last such explosion of a different super volcano in Indonesia.
There is info based on mutation rates in our DNA that indicates that at that time the human population could have been as little as 1000-2000 individuals. Thus, ostensibly the huge explosion wiped out the human race by bringing on a "nuclear type winter" that you hear so much about ... lowering global temperatures by as much as 15o C and making food scarce, etc. It's quite a sobering idea that Yellowstone gives evidence in strata of having a blow rate of once every 600,000 years and that the last one was ... you guessed it ... 600,000 years ago.
Isn't it coincidental that we're all gonna' die !!!!! by some mechanism that's gonn happen sometime ... anytime ... when you least expect it? Well, they said, in this case not to worry because though it might explode tomorrow killing us all ... it could also explode 200,000 years from now. Phew! I was getting ready to pack my bags for the South American rain forest or ... what' left of it. To blow up a planet, the initial gravitational energy is no good since the best we could get is to throw out matter back where it came from ... IF ... none of that energy was radiated away as heat. That's what keeps matter down in the potential well in the first place. It can't get out because some energy escaped irretrievably out into inter-galactic space. To take the planet apart again we need more energy ... lots of it.
And ... we need a "spring" to compress and hold ... until enough of that extra energy has accumulated to blow a planet.
Well, dissolving a gas under pressure is going to be the spring and the energy to compress it must be provided by the other sources ... with the exception of collision events because these would crack the egg open prematurely releasing the "awful" before we're ready for the really big shew. And ... the flexing source would probably do the same ... hmmmm ... what does that leave ... YES! it must be internal fission events! There's our compressor.
So, fission heats up the magma (extra hot) ... this helps to dissolve the gas (sulphur compounds in the super-volcano and on IO too) ... we wait around millions of years while the crust keeps the lid on ... then ... then ... some bigass collision takes place busting open our planet like a rotten fruit and its guts explode out from a more extensive surface area ... all at once ... just like the Coke can.
Voila ... phase transition ... super sized.
My guess is that the Earth would be just too big for this to happen because escape velocity is too high ... much higher than Concorde velocity ... but moon size ... hmmmmm ... maybe. Whud'ya think?
It happened to Krypton ... and ... it could happen ... again.
User Reviews
Submitted by pfs4life321 (user info) at 2005-12-24 00:33:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
my bad typo
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2005-12-16 20:29:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by MistressFist (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:26:03 (#)
Ranking: 1
Krakatoa = Cameltoa?
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MistressFist, if I had you bound and gagged in the trunk of my '79 Fairmont, I'd leave your ears and one nostril un-duct-taped so we could enjoy sound of the crickets and the junkyard car-crusher together, for a few hours.
I hope you'd do the same for me.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2005-12-16 17:26:19 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
There's no way that THE Greg Webb actually has a post with a rating in positive integers.
Submitted by thechairnamedgod (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:42:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
the real theory on exploding plants
http://www.ubersite.com/m/81043
Submitted by SkinnyKenny (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:27:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I tried really hard to think up something clever regarding exploding plants, but failed miserably.
I saw that show, too. Interesting.
Submitted by MistressFist (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:26:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Krakatoa = Cameltoa?
Submitted by Ejryuu (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:22:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I was much more excited for exploding plants. Have an ex that just won't leave you alone? Take her back with exploding roses. KABOOM!
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:17:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Exploding PLANETS not plants.
Submitted by thechairnamedgod (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:10:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
where are the exploding plants?
Submitted by firefly (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:06:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:03:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The word "Krakatoa" makes me laugh like a little girl.
Submitted by Barnymeinhoff (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:03:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by pfs4life321 (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:03:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Sorry about the typo in the heading
Submitted by Grimm (user info) at 2005-12-16 13:02:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment