DEEPWATER HORIZON DISASTER- Methane levels has an explosive energy equal to a 142 MT Nuclear Bomb

BTW, that equals 94,880 a-bombs dropped on Hiroshima

This is calculated just incase the entire well ruptures open. It gives an idea how explosive such a rupturing would be. SOmeone on another thread wondered this so I charged myself to figure it out.

If anyone has a more accurate level of methane in Deepwater Horizons Macondo reserve, please inform me so I can get a better measurement of explosive power.

"Crap!"

you know that Deepwater Horizon is the name of the drilling rig? the one that already sunk and is at the bottom of the ocean? It drilled into the tiber formation


that's a fail

tiber formation!

You are absolutely correct. But the levels of methane ARE estimated from the reserve she was drilling into.

People understand Deepwater better.

I will change the title too suite your perticularness.

good grief. it just gets worse. the fuckening.

This has remained the same. No one told you is all.

It would only be that large if the rock formation cracked open enough to allow all the pressure and gas to escape in one instance. The release would have enough energy to ignite the methane with the atmosphere it is escaping into.

The real explosion would probably be a few levels smaller due to the supply of oxygen. But the rupture would be so violent a large amount of oxygen would be mixed in rapidly.

For those of you who are unknowing to nuclear weapons, a 20MT Bomb is considered a VERY VERY LARGE nuclear weapon. Like the massive Soviet Bombs in the Cold War Era.

Solution: put microwave oven faraday cage inside dingy boat. place i phone and laptop inside cage. pull tarp over top. drink beer and wait. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!​! COMETH ....

Poor assumptions in your argument OP. While you are correct on the energy content of the methane stored in the Horizon well, it is wreckless to imply that this energy could be released in a catastrophic explosion.

First...we don't know how much methane will leak out and over what time period the leak will occur.

Second...you have not accounted for methane that dissolves into the seawater and you have not accounted for the dissipation of methane in the atmosphere due to convection.

Third...even if all the methane were released and somehow hovered over the spill site in a giant gas bubble, the explosive limits of methane would limit the extent of its combustion. Methane only explodes in the concentration range of 5-15%. So, you would have a "shell" of methane which would meet this criteria. Not the whole quantity.

The Soviets TZAR Bomb was 100MT and the flash of light was seen 1,000 km away. The heat was felt 270 km away. Shockwave was 700km, windows busted 900km away. Complete destruction in a radius of 55km.

So the explosion in the Gulf would be like this...

Distance of viewable flash = 1,420 km
Area of complete destruction radius of 78 km
Heat felt as far away as = 383 km
Windows blasted out at 1,278 km

142(give or take) Megaton nuclear warhead?

Well...that would definitely create that massive crater I saw in my dream.

74Km blast radius?

Fits perfectly with my dream man...

That better not of been a foresight or I will be very pissed. (and dead)

Last Edited by Solon on 06/20/2010 11:08 PM

The Tsar was 50MT, it was lowered from 100MT to 50MT because of the weight.

Thanks I love numbers. But those numbers are scary.

Lighten up, it is the explosive power of the methane involved. We all understand the oxygen would not mix efficiently and I think I even stated that.

But IF the well erupted at once, the methane would continue to burn as oxygen mixes at the edges. The heat would creat a mushroom cloud and the fire would suck air in from the bottom. it would create a vortex of air spinning into the fire zone and continue to burn until all the energy available is used up.

So it will still explode just like a 142 MT bomb, just a little slower. But the energy is still there.

Just a side thought. Does it bother anyone else that they are burning off methane and flaring oil right above the spill site?

On a break, a BP worker with a cigarette in his mouth lights a match...

Ah ok then...
But this is only a multiplier, the real increases would be a bit lesser.

Distance of viewable flash = 3,000 km
Area of complete destruction radius of 165 km
Heat felt as far away as = 810 km
Windows blasted out at 2,700 km

It's just Darwin at work.

so if this thing explodes...how far (radius) would it go?

the big bang

the doom heard around the whirld

The methane below will not ignite, no oxygen.

This explosive power is ONLY possible if the entire reserve ruptured open. This is for specualtion only. However, the energy levels are still there.

It would explode in a different manner then a real nuclear bomb would to some degree. But the energy released would be the same.

So consider 3 TZAR Bombs exploding in slow motion, that would be the Reserves power if the entire reserve ruptured open.

So the blast calculations abovewould be off by a large factor. But no one has ever seen such a thing so we are all in the guessing stage if that were to happen.

Luckily, the fuel to air ratio is currently not sufficient enough to trigger such an explosion... so far. However, imagine if there were a major rupture in the sea bed that suddenly released a large volume of volatile gases with that giant "pilot light" ship the Discoverer Enterprise perched directly above the gas bubble?

[link to static.guim.co.uk]

It would be physically impossible for all the gas from the deep deposit to be released at once. What is possible is for gas to accumulate in the strata below the sea bed. It could entrain the strata there for miles and miles, who knows how far. The pressure at the extreme of the migration of gas into the strata would be low and would become higher toward the source. In this case the source is the damaged well. From statements released it appears the well is breached about 1,000 ft below the sea bed. As this gas permeates throughout the rock strata between the sea bed and the release point in the well it will gradually increase in area and in pressure over a large area. Area X pressure = force. When the force gets great enough to overcome the overburden between it and the sea bed it will pop like a balloon. How can anybody predict when this will occur? Impossible.

Okay everyone, let me add my nerd $0.02 here....
(Just to let you know I was in the Navy trained to run nuclear reactors so I think I would know and understand the explosiveness of nuclear energy.)

You are correct that only a fraction of the methane would explode, HOWEVER, what you are not considering is the fraction of the methane. Suppose that 10% of the methane was left and the conditions were right and it exploded. That is 10% of a 142MT explosion. 142 * .1 = 14.2. So, we have a 14.2MT explosion, equivalent. That is enough energy to flash boil 2-3 cubic MILES of the gulf waters. That amount of energy would result in a tsunami of about 60-100 ft, if my math serves me correct. The shockwave enough would be felt for about 50 miles, meaning that one would feel it in the ground 50 miles ON SHORE.

Yes, if the conditions are correct, the gulf costal areas would be obliterated.

Crap, your avatar don't lie...you sure do bring the doom.

They were not drilling in Tiber when the Deepwater Horizon was destroyed. It was the Macondo Prospect in the Missippippi Canyon, block 252 to be specific. Tiber is in Keathley Canyon.

Two different reserves.

Last Edited by ~fish out of water~ on 06/20/2010 11:17 PM