# What would happen if a frickin giant laser... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 1, 2014, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-frickin-giant-laser/682598 "2014-03-01T15:34:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-frickin-giant-laser/682598/21 "2014-03-03T16:12:48Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > A laser does not just make the mass vanish. It has to go somewhere, as others have pointed out, into vapor, into the atmosphere. > > If you really wanted your hypothetical to be “what if you waved a magic wand that vanished a cylinder of diameter 2 miles from the north to south pole of the earth?” Then basically it would be that the hole would fill in rather quickly and the Earth would have a bit less mass than it did before. There would likely be a lot of seismic activity and probably a lot of global cooling as a result of atmospheric ash and such released during re-settling events. I doubt civilization or humanity would survive. This is just a guess though. Maybe a 2-mile wide cylinder wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I stand corrected. Ignorance fought. Please correct me if I’m wrong. The center of the Earth is a solid iron-nickel rock some 760mi across. It’s never been effected by seismic activity, that I’m aware of (for what that’s worth :rolleyes: ). It would now have a hole in it, 760mi long and 1mi wide. That could affect it’s rotational stabilization. The spinning rock could change it’s rotational axis. Especially if the hole is off-center. Would that be enough to cause the Earth to change it’s rotational axis also? The rock is surrounded by a liquid metal magma that would absorb most of the vaporized iron-nickel. The magma would also absorb most of the vaporized magma. The magma’s normal current/flow/path around the center core/rock could be interrupted by the laser discharge (slightly?) which could alter current magnetic readings more than what would normally be expected. Nautical charts that normally corrected to show the usual periodic changes to magnetic deviation would probably have to be updated sooner. Some of the magma would escape to the surface of the Earth and some of the vaporized magma and iron-nickel rock core would escape into the atmosphere. Radiation from the sun would be blocked and the Earth’s surface temperature would drop. People would be pissing in their pants because there is a very large laser aimed at the Earth. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-frickin-giant-laser/682598/22 "2014-03-03T18:44:05Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > Please correct me if I’m wrong. The center of the Earth is a solid iron-nickel rock some 760mi across. It’s not that simple. It’s only solid because of pressure, and it’s not a rock the way you’d understand the term. Relieve that pressure (say, by tapping a mile-wide hole into it…) and it’s not going to stay solid. It’s going to squirt _everywhere_. And fast. And for a long time. > [@](#): > > It’s never been effected by seismic activity, that I’m aware of You’re aware wrong. The inner core isn’t homogeneous, and we know this _because of_ seismic studies. > [@](#): > > The rock is surrounded by a liquid metal magma The word for the outer core material isn’t magma. It’s more-or-less the same as the inner core composition (less uranium & gold, more sulphur and oxygen) > [@](#): > > Some of the magma would escape to the surface of the Earth and some of the vaporized magma and iron-nickel rock core would escape into the atmosphere. I don’t think you’re quite grokking _how much_ stuff is going to come shooting out of that hole. Kimberlite pipes aren’t nearly as deep, only rarely as wide, and they were emplaced with eruptions of _supersonic_ speeds. These deep mantle/core taps are going to come even faster, and spew lots more stuff. And it’s going to keep coming, likely for a long time - think tens of thousands or millions of years… Basically, we’d be fucked _before_ we even knew it. It’d make any eruption or extrusion we have on record look like a kid’s science fair experiment. From the [Siberian Traps](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_Traps#Impact_on_prehistoric_life) to[Lake Toba](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba), I doubt any life hitherto would ever have experienced _anything_ like it. Basically, this would go past mass extinction-level event to planet near-sterilizer (I’m reasonably sure some deep vent extremophiles may hold out for a while. Until the radiation in the meters-thick coating of FeNi ash gets to them.) ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-frickin-giant-laser/682598/23 "2014-03-04T05:19:17Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > …I don’t think you’re quite grokking _how much_ stuff is going to come shooting out of that hole. Kimberlite pipes aren’t nearly as deep, only rarely as wide, and they were emplaced with eruptions of _supersonic_ speeds. These deep mantle/core taps are going to come even faster, and spew lots more stuff. And it’s going to keep coming, likely for a long time - think tens of thousands or millions of years… Thanks for the info. I guess it wouldn’t matter to life on Earth if the Earth’s rotational axis shifted after all of that. It looks like the planet surface would be dead/unlivable before a new tropic zone would finally be settled on. (Can I keep grokking just until I need glasses?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-frickin-giant-laser/682598.md?page=1)