# Asteroid hits oil field

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asteroid-hits-oil-field/732296>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 23, 2015, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asteroid-hits-oil-field/732296 "2015-09-23T14:06:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![MrQwertyasd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asteroid-hits-oil-field/732296/21 "2015-09-25T17:49:36Z")

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So let’s say an airburst over the Gulf of Mexico, or Baku, or the North Sea - generally the fields are old and not holding much pressure so we’re not looking at loads of fires ?

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**Author:** ![MrQwertyasd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@MrQwertyasd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrQwertyasd)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asteroid-hits-oil-field/732296/22 "2015-09-25T17:50:48Z")

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> [@dracoi](#):
>
> That’s a good question. I know that explosives are sometimes used to put out an oil rig fire - deprive the area of oxygen and the fire goes out. A nuke would certainly consume and/or push out all of the oxygen for a brief time, but it would probably leave a lot of hot surfaces and small fires behind that could ignite the oil. In a desert, residual fires would be less likely than in a forested, grassy or urban area.

I think I’ve seen that on TV - there was a guy called Red Adair famous for capping burning wells.

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