Was in the shower pondering what other calamities 2020 may have in store for us… imagined a giant meteor crashing through the eye of a prion-infested-locust-hurricane into a huge erupting volcano and it struck me… hey, that might work out alright in some ways.

What would happen if a meteorite with a diameter roughly equal to the diameter of the caldera of an active volcano were to hit that volcano just precisely so that the meteor would (appear to) sit momentarily as a ball in a cup within the crater-area a moment before the final impact?

A millisecond later it would bust open that bolus

dv said:

A millisecond later it would bust open that bolus

Giant URL, half a pitcher.

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

A millisecond later it would bust open that bolus

Giant URL, half a pitcher.

I didn’t even get half, just a giant blank space.

Divine Angel said:

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

A millisecond later it would bust open that bolus

Giant URL, half a pitcher.

I didn’t even get half, just a giant blank space.

I’m still typing in the url.
I’ll let youse know.

esselte said:

What would happen if a meteorite with a diameter roughly equal to the diameter of the caldera of an active volcano were to hit that volcano just precisely so that the meteor would (appear to) sit momentarily as a ball in a cup within the crater-area a moment before the final impact?

It’d make things worse. How much worse would need to be calculated, but worse.

The damage caused by the meteor would blast rock out of the crater area of the volcano. That would reduce the overpressure of rock on the volcanic vent and so cause extra flow of lava to the surface. Worse.

At the moment of impact it would splash – ejecting streams of lava at high velocity in all directions. Like the famous milk drop experiment shown below.

That wouldn’t stop the meteorite. If there was a cone shaped volcano there before, like Mt Fugi, then a few seconds later there would be no Mt Fugi left. Supervolcanoes tend not to be cone-shaped, but the meteorite, travelling at a speed measured in km/s would dig a hole hundreds of metres deep in a fraction of a second. Easing the path of the volcanic ejecta to the surface.

In a nutshell, the destruction from the meteorite would add to the destruction from the supervolcano, and more.

mollwollfumble said:

esselte said:

What would happen if a meteorite with a diameter roughly equal to the diameter of the caldera of an active volcano were to hit that volcano just precisely so that the meteor would (appear to) sit momentarily as a ball in a cup within the crater-area a moment before the final impact?

It’d make things worse. How much worse would need to be calculated, but worse.

The damage caused by the meteor would blast rock out of the crater area of the volcano. That would reduce the overpressure of rock on the volcanic vent and so cause extra flow of lava to the surface. Worse.

At the moment of impact it would splash – ejecting streams of lava at high velocity in all directions. Like the famous milk drop experiment shown below.

That wouldn’t stop the meteorite. If there was a cone shaped volcano there before, like Mt Fugi, then a few seconds later there would be no Mt Fugi left. Supervolcanoes tend not to be cone-shaped, but the meteorite, travelling at a speed measured in km/s would dig a hole hundreds of metres deep in a fraction of a second. Easing the path of the volcanic ejecta to the surface.

In a nutshell, the destruction from the meteorite would add to the destruction from the supervolcano, and more.

Yes would quickly become very messy.

PermeateFree said:

In a nutshell, the destruction from the meteorite would add to the destruction from the supervolcano, and more.

Yes would quickly become very messy.

still..
I’d rather
go out with a
BANG than a Whimper