# What weapons could be built (practically) that would be more powerful than nuclear weapons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229 "2016-06-01T13:02:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/41 "2016-06-01T23:03:37Z")
You could recruit millions of your population to buy and use all sorts of greenhouse gas causing products and cause worldwide weather disasters killing millions… ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/42 "2016-06-01T23:57:54Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > … > Taking a medium sized asteroid, grinding it into a fine powder, and dropping it into low Earth orbit would both take out satellite communications and then fill the stratosphere with dust that would occlude sunlight, and would remain until it falls into the troposphere and is precipitated out of the atmosphere. Sustain this for long enough (e.g. a growing season or longer) and you would essentially doom all complex animal and much plant life to extinction. > > Yes, larger bombs essentially just push the atmosphere up and out, producing more impressive fireballs but with only limited radial effects. > > A few more speculative ideas: > [ul] > [li]Fill the oceans with hyperoxygenating engineered algae which push the atmospheric O[SUB]2[/SUB] to toxic levels (\>30%) [/li][li]Introduce a stable black hole or some kind of energetic exotic matter which causes matter to accumulate and create a local high gravity gradient, eventually consuming the atmosphere or planet[/li][li]Fill the atmosphere with a gaseous hydrocarbon and combust the entire surface in one giant flamefront[/li][li]Turn off gravity and watch the Earth be flung out of orbit before internal pressure blows it apart[/li][/ul]Of course, none of these are practicable or (currently) technologically feasible, but it’s only a matter of time before my research, I mean, someone’s research, comes up with a solution, then global extortion, profit, and retirement to a nice geyserside pressure dome on Triton. > > Stranger **Dr. Strangelove On a Train** ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/43 "2016-06-02T00:16:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Riemann** : > > I’m curious - ignoring the practicalities of building the thing, are there inherent constraints in the physical process that you eventually reach? Of course. For one thing, if you make it _too_ big, it collapses into a black hole. Practical limits will usually apply before that, though. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/44 "2016-06-02T00:19:06Z")
Hitting some spot on Earth with an asteroid-sized object sounds pretty terrible, as we all remember the bad hair day of the dinosaurs. However, “dropping” a large object from a near-Earth orbit wouldn’t achieve the velocity of a comet or asteroid coming from outer space, and a high velocity multiplies the effective force by a whopping big number. How much? Darn, my slide rule is in storage and I just can’t get the hang of these newfangled calculators, so I don’t know, but it’s a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/45 "2016-06-02T00:26:12Z")
Ok, if we’re going there, I proffer the two most plausible ways to destroy the entire universe. (1) Nucleate vacuum decay, destroying both this universe and any possibility of joy. > **[False vacuum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum)** > > In quantum field theory, a false vacuum is a hypothetical vacuum state that is locally stable but does not occupy the most stable possible ground state. In this condition it is called metastable. It may last for a very long time in this state, but could eventually decay to the more stable one, an event known as false vacuum decay. The most common suggestion of how such a decay might happen in our universe is called bubble nucleation – if a small region of the universe by chance reached a mo A fal... > [@](#): > > If the universe were indeed in such a false vacuum state, a catastrophic bubble of more stable true vacuum could theoretically occur at any time or place expanding outward at the speed of light…In a new study posted on the arXiv in March 2015, it was pointed out that the vacuum decay rate could be vastly increased in the vicinity of black holes, which would serve as a nucleation seed. [QUOTE=Coleman & de Luccia] The possibility that we are living in a false vacuum has never been a cheering one to contemplate. Vacuum decay is the ultimate ecological catastrophe; in the new vacuum there are new constants of nature; after vacuum decay, not only is life as we know it impossible, so is chemistry as we know it. However, **one could always draw stoic comfort from the possibility that perhaps in the course of time the new vacuum would sustain, if not life as we know it, at least some structures capable of knowing joy.** [Under our model the new universe within the bubble undergoes catastrophic gravitational collapse within microsends, so…] **This possibility has now been eliminated.** [/QUOTE] (2) If this universe is a simulation, do something that will lead to termination of the simulation. Possibilities might include the discovery and exploitation of a bug in the simulation to mess it up; or guessing the purpose of the simulation and initiating events that render the continuation of the simulation pointless. (1) Would proceed rather slowly, radiating at the speed of light from the nucleation point. The advantage of (2) is that it might be instantaneous. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/46 "2016-06-02T00:32:53Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I’m curious - ignoring the practicalities of building the thing, are there inherent constraints in the physical process that you eventually reach? You could run out of U-235/Pu-239. OK, but if the weapon is too large, maintenance could be extremely difficult - and the larger and more complex the weapon, the more things that could malfunction. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/47 "2016-06-02T01:16:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Of course. For one thing, if you make it _too_ big, it collapses into a black hole. > > Practical limits will usually apply before that, though. A black hole would make a pretty effective weapon though. Just push your enemies into it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/48 "2016-06-02T04:50:26Z")
Is OP asking literally how to create a bigger kablooie? Some posters have suggested bioweapons that could quietly do much more damage. Enlarging on that note, consider the possibility of some kind of _psychological_ weapon that could reduce its victims to drooling blobs of dysfunctional protoplasm, in large numbers. As suggested in 1960’s-era sci-fi, 500 copies of the Stella Mudd (wife of Harcourt Fenton Mudd) fembot could do that. ---
**Author:** ![TommySeven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@TommySeven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommySeven)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/49 "2016-06-02T07:18:56Z")
> [@joema](#): > > So a 50,000 megaton device would weigh 8,333 metric tons and would have to be delivered by ship. Teller reportedly kept a list of hypothetical large weapons and their delivery methods, the last of which was “[backyard](http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/09/12/in-search-of-a-bigger-boom/)”. ---
**Author:** ![Commodore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Commodore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commodore)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/50 "2016-06-02T08:04:21Z")
Political Correctness will be the most devastating weapon of destruction. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/51 "2016-06-02T10:46:45Z")
In theory it’s possible to move Earth or another planet via gravity with enough close fly-bys of an asteroid; occasionally it gets mentioned as a possible very long term way to move Earth away from the Sun as it warms up over geological time scales, and preventing a runaway greenhouse effect. Presumably you could use the same technique to ram a planet \*into \*the Earth instead of moving it out of danger. It would take a very, very long time though; my guess would be millions of years. So it depends on whether or not the time required is factored into the “practical” part of the question. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/52 "2016-06-02T13:46:22Z")
IIRC, the meteor over central Russia a few years ago was supposedly about the size of a small apartment building (70 feet diameter?). Siberia seems to be the aliens’ favourite test firing range… > [@](#): > > The Chelyabinsk meteor was a superbolide caused by a near-Earth asteroid that entered Earth’s atmosphere over Russia on 15 February 2013 at about 09:20 YEKT (03:20 UTC), with a speed of 19.16 ± 0.15 kilometres per second (60,000[5]–69,000 km/h or 40,000[5]–42,900 mph).[6][7] It quickly became a brilliant superbolide meteor over the southern Ural region. The light from the meteor was brighter than the Sun, up to 100 km away. It was observed over a wide area of the region and in neighbouring republics. Some eyewitnesses also felt intense heat from the fireball. > > On account of its high velocity and shallow angle of atmospheric entry, the object exploded in an air burst over Chelyabinsk Oblast, at a height of around 29.7 km (18.4 miles, 97,400 feet).[7][8] The explosion generated a bright flash, producing a hot cloud of dust and gas that penetrated to 26.2 km, and many surviving small fragmentary meteorites, as well as a large shock wave. The bulk of the object’s energy was absorbed by the atmosphere, with a total kinetic energy before atmospheric impact equivalent to approximately 500 kilotons of TNT (about 1.8 PJ), 20–30 times more energy than was released from the atomic bomb detonated at Hiroshima. > > … > > With an estimated initial mass of about 12,000–13,000 metric tonnes[7][8][9] (13,000–14,000 short tons, heavier than the Eiffel Tower), and measuring about 20 metres in diameter, it is the largest known natural object to have entered Earth’s atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska event, which destroyed a wide, remote, forested area of Siberia. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/53 "2016-06-02T13:52:14Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > A black hole would make a pretty effective weapon though. Just push your enemies into it. Heck, if you wanna do that a decent quarry will work just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/54 "2016-06-02T14:08:41Z")
> [@TommySeven](#): > > Teller reportedly kept a list of hypothetical large weapons and their delivery methods, the last of which was “[backyard](http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/09/12/in-search-of-a-bigger-boom/)”. Great cite/site. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/55 "2016-06-02T14:12:45Z")
> [@Commodore](#): > > Political Correctness will be the most devastating weapon of destruction. **Moderator Note** **Commodore** , political commentary is not appropriate for General Questions. Don’t do this again. Since I note that you have engaged in witnessing in another thread, be on notice that further posts of this kind in this forum will be subject to a warning. Restrict yourself to factual statements here. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/56 "2016-06-02T14:13:38Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > IIRC, the meteor over central Russia a few years ago was supposedly about the size of a small apartment building (70 feet diameter?). Siberia seems to be the aliens’ favourite test firing range…[text snip] From [Chelyabinsk meteor - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor) Is this the first meteor breakup ever photographed _in medias res_? Or are all sorts of night-time sky streaks meteor breakups? (Asteroids, meteors. comets: can never tell 'em apart.( ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/57 "2016-06-02T14:17:26Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Heck, if you wanna do that a decent quarry will work just fine. To the unaware, including me: this is an SD (GQ?) inside joke. I don’t know the referent (:() but I’ve seen it dragged in whenever possible–although here it’s on the money. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/58 "2016-06-02T14:23:22Z")
The Peekskill Meteor back in 1992 was caught by over a dozen camcorders (the numbers I’ve seen say over 20, but Wiki says 16), mostly due to the stroke of luck that it fell on a Friday evening in October (when many Americans happen to be outside with camcorders running, watching high school football). It was probably also caught in a great many still photographs: It was visible from pretty much the entire eastern US, and lasted long enough that a person could plausible have gotten out their camera during it. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/59 "2016-06-02T14:35:35Z")
Neat. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229/60 "2016-06-02T14:49:36Z")
Perhaps a supercomputer capable of analyzing the butterfly effect on human society, bring about the small change that would bring us to the brink of extinction, or extinct perhaps via WW3, damaging environmental practices, political methods or educational steering of society. Yes it would take some time to happen if we could even figure out how to predict the results of these small actions but could be a very powerful weapon and perhaps irreversible once triggered. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-weapons-could-be-built-practically-that-would-be-more-powerful-than-nuclear-weapons/756229.md?page=4)