# Is it possible to ignite the atmosphere? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296 "2003-08-15T01:32:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Shirty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirty)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/1 "2003-08-15T01:32:51Z")
I was watching an old godzilla movie- godzilla vs \ in which the giant radioactive lizard was at risk of going Chernobyl. Now, Godzilla movies are not known for their accuracy concerning radioactivity, biology, geology, physics or the time it takes to rebuild Tokyo, but one interesting piece of english dubbed speculation did arise. “There is a risk that if Godzilla explodes, he may ignite the atmosphere.” Is it possible to ignite the Earth’s atmosphere without a radioactive, 30 story tall lizard? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/2 "2003-08-15T01:46:26Z")
During my time at Science City Zero, we determined that there is nothing you could do which would ignite the atmosphere. The pressure and temperature required to make atmospheric oxygen combine with other gasses will not occur over a large enough volume to allow combustion. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/3 "2003-08-15T01:49:39Z")
Yes, but only if you meet all the requirements of the fire triangle. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfrick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bb73d2/32.png) [@Wolfrick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfrick)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/4 "2003-08-15T02:51:46Z")
Our atmosphere is some 70% nitrogen. The oxygen would combine with other stuff very quickly (ie, burn) except for the fact that the concentration of oxygen is very low, due to the nitrogen. As a result, oxygen has to be content\* to gnaw away at stuff slowly (ie, corrosion). \Did you know it’s possible to burn water? Florine has a higher affinity for things like hydrogen than does oxygen. If you were to mix flourine and water, KABOOM!, and you’d wind up with hydrogen flouride and O2\ ~Wolfrick \*anthropomorphism intentional ---
**Author:** ![KenGr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecc23a/32.png) [@KenGr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenGr)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/5 "2003-08-15T03:59:06Z")
The reason that the atmosphere won’t burn is that there isn’t anything flammable in the atmosphere except in trace quantities. Hydrogen and Methane are the closest things to being in flammable quantities and they are on the order of 0.01%. If you raised the temperature enough you could get the hydrogen and methane to combine with oxygen but it wouldn’t look much like ignition. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/6 "2003-08-15T05:00:20Z")
Sure, if you pump enough flammable gas into it. [I’ve seen portions of the atmosphere ignited, lots of times.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=151130&highlight=fart) But not ALL of it, certainly. That would take more methane than I think we have available within any kind of immediate reach… ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/7 "2003-08-15T06:04:08Z")
If Earth were to collide with Jupiter the Earth’s atmosphere would burn pretty well; you didn’t say it had to be easy… * * * SF worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/8 "2003-08-15T12:06:43Z")
If someone fired the Death Star at us, yeah. Anything short of that, no. ---
**Author:** ![Jjinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@Jjinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jjinn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/9 "2003-08-15T14:23:34Z")
The atmosphere will ignite when there is enough fine particles of anything flammable in it. Wheat dust can create an explosive atmosphere in a grain silo, iron dust in a steel mill, and turn of the century clothing mills would explode if the cotton dust was not exhausted quickly enough. Plus, Godzilla likes bean and onion burritos. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/10 "2003-08-15T15:08:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Comatoast \* > \*\*“There is a risk that if Godzilla explodes, he may ignite the atmosphere.” > > Is it possible to ignite the Earth’s atmosphere without a radioactive, 30 story tall lizard? \*\* From [this source](http://www.kressworks.com/Science/A_black_hole_ate_my_planet.htm) > [@](#): > > Yet in November 1975, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists claimed that Arthur Compton, a leading member of the Manhattan Project, had said that there really was a risk of igniting the atmosphere. It turned out to be a case of Chinese whispers: Compton had mentioned the calculation during an interview with the American writer Pearl Buck, who had got the wrong end of the stick. So the Japanese film makers had been listening to Chinese whispers :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Jjinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@Jjinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jjinn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/11 "2003-08-15T17:56:41Z")
Here’s what Google got me: 1. Fermi was the one who raised the possibility that an atomic bomb would ignite the atmosphere; 2. Teller raised the possibility that a _fusion_ bomb would ignite the atmosphere; 3. The odds were set at three in one million (how? who?); 4. Bethe proved that ignition was impossible _before_ the test; 5. Emil Konopinski proved that ignition was impossible _after_ the test. [History of the problem](http://www.lanl.gov/worldview/welcome/history/02_berkeley-summer.html) > [@](#): > > Bethe was skeptical, and as Teller proposed scheme after scheme for a “superbomb,” Bethe refuted each one. When Teller raised the possibility that an atomic bomb might ignite the atmosphere, however, he kindled a worry that was not entirely extinguished until the Trinity test, even though Bethe showed, theoretically, that it couldn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![Jjinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@Jjinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jjinn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/12 "2003-08-15T18:08:51Z")
Since the Trinity Test was on July 16, 1945, and Godzilla was first discovered as \*\*Gojira \*\*(1954), that pretty much means he arrived too late for serious scientists to worry if the explosion would ignite the atmosphere. But there’s a saying in the military: 10% never get the word. So they probably would have worried, had the monster been real. For sure all the media would have worried, as they mistrust scientific findings entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Shirty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Shirty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirty)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-ignite-the-atmosphere/195296/13 "2003-08-16T02:36:05Z")
Very well. I choose to mistrust this thread’s findings and deduce that it is possible to ignite the atmosphere. Now, to my thesis…