# Highest pressure in a large volume?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 22, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785 "2012-11-22T00:53:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/1 "2012-11-22T00:53:06Z")
Very high pressures have been generated at the points of two diamonds squeezed together, but I was wondering what’s the highest pressure that’s been generated in a fairly large volume- say at least 1 liter.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/2 "2012-11-22T03:10:26Z")
Oh, probably the immediate vicinity of the [Tsar Bomba](http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html) after detonation.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/3 "2012-11-22T03:13:39Z")
I meant _ **contained** _ in a large volume, e.g. a pressure vessel.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/4 "2012-11-22T04:11:19Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> Oh, probably the immediate vicinity of the [Tsar Bomba](http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html) after detonation.
How about the target at the National Laser Test Facility (“fusion or bust”)?
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/5 "2012-11-22T04:19:15Z")
Sorry, National Ignition Facility at Livermore Lab.
500 trillion W, 1.85 Mj.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/6 "2012-11-22T04:47:44Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> Sorry, National Ignition Facility at Livermore Lab.
>
> 500 trillion W, 1.85 Mj.
Yeah, but those pressures are achieved in a teeny-tiny sphere called a Hohlraum, which is way smaller than 1 liter.
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### Author:  [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/7 "2012-11-22T04:52:13Z")
You have to say on Earth before people start talking about neutron stars and such.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/8 "2012-11-22T06:01:38Z")
What about a tokamak?
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### Author:  [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/9 "2012-11-22T07:46:18Z")
Well I don’t want to worry you Gulf of Mexico folk, but you’re sitting on some pretty high pressure gas caps.
> **[Uncontainable Methane at 100,000 PSI in the Gulf. Related to Bayou Bubbles???](https://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/methane-at-100000-psi/)**
>
> Experts agree that the pressure that blows the oil into the Gulf waters is estimated to be between 30,000 and 70,000 pounds per square inch (psi). Some speculate that the pressure of the methane at…
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/10 "2012-11-22T15:19:38Z")
Autoclave Engineers company of Erie, PA used to sell stock pressure vessels rated for 140,000 psi, IIRC, and AFAIK they still do.
I think continuous pressures around 90,000 psi are used in the polymerization of polyethylene.
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### Author:  [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/11 "2012-11-22T17:32:57Z")
> [@manila](#):
>
> Well I don’t want to worry you Gulf of Mexico folk, but you’re sitting on some pretty high pressure gas caps.
>
> [Uncontainable Methane at 100,000 PSI in the Gulf. Related to Bayou Bubbles??? | The Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle](http://lasinkhole.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/methane-at-100000-psi/)
I wouldn’t trust that source though, going on about “methane tsunamis” and mass extinctions and such (and considering the date it was posted, October 1, 2012, it sounds like they think the Macondo well is still spewing oil and gas, just as some think that the sinkhole in Louisiana (see URL) is more than just a sinkhole).
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### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2012, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-pressure-in-a-large-volume/641785/12 "2012-11-22T17:53:17Z")
> [@Napier](#):
>
> Autoclave Engineers company of Erie, PA used to sell stock pressure vessels rated for 140,000 psi, IIRC, and AFAIK they still do.
:eek:
They need a Crockodile Dundee commercial with him saying “That’s not an autoclave…THIS is an autoclave”