Just plug the hole, duh.

This should be a good thread.

I've done a few things in my day. But shoving a cigar in a lady never occurred to me.

Howie Spankowitz: ...and blowing.

Thank you.

timujin: I've been wondering if the reason BP didn't do this in the first place is because they think it'll make it too difficult to get back down there, either due to physical or political issues.

No, they didn't want to do it because fracturing rock with explosives is a good way to INCREASE oil flow in a formation. It was done all the time in the earlier days of oil drilling and research is still being done on various ways to use it.

Something tells me that causing even more oil to leak would be a bad thing. That would be why BP doesn't want to do it.

Does Monica do underwater?

timujin: I've been wondering if the reason BP didn't do this in the first place is because they think it'll make it too difficult to get back down there, either due to physical or political issues.

I know as much about this as Bill Clinton, which is not much, so the following is an ounce of knowledge mixed with a ton of speculation and probably faulty deduction. My guess is that to "blow it up" (in reality, they set off an explosion near the bore hole way way underground to pinch it off), you have to drill another very deep bore anyway, so it's probably not much more trouble to try the time-tested "relief well" approach since you're there already. The explosion approach could be tried as a last resort.

Howie Spankowitz: ...and blowing.

Expected this in the headline.

/Satisfied

It's not a viable strategy. Is there anyone who doesn't know that yet?

Just out of curiosity, how do you "blow up" something that's underwater? Don't you need oxygen for an explosion?

Unless they want to use an explosive to destroy the rock and release the remaining oil, which doesn't really make any sense.

I know nothing about oil rigs and leaks and whatnot, but if this is an option, why didn't we do it sooner?

ibanezdude: Just out of curiosity, how do you "blow up" something that's underwater? Don't you need oxygen for an explosion?

Unless they want to use an explosive to destroy the rock and release the remaining oil, which doesn't really make any sense.

check this out: Link (new window)

you just need the air for the propagation of flame. the concussion will still occur. i think this strategy was prematurely ruled out. it was likely for political reasons.

...and blowjerbs...


He knows about those too.

Becoz somebody still wants their oil.

Last time I checked, wasn't the owner of BP a dutchman?

Clinton almost knows what he is talking about.

If you drill down next to the pipe, and pop a pony nuke, about 5 kt, it will pinch off the pipe and stop the flow.

We hope, that is.

That has been done in the old USSR several times, and it works.

Problem here is, I do not know if this would work under 5200 feet of water, at roughly 2200 psi. I do not know how close you need to get to the well, how deep to go, or how big the bomb has to be.

Plus I absolutely fer sure do not know what to do next if it doesn't work. You might just blow a hole in the bottom of the ocean which no one can cap, sound like fun? It might flow 10 times as much as right now for the next 30 years, and not even God could cap a well like that.

Sorry, no thanks. Relief well should be complete by August.

If there was one thing Clinton was good at, it was plugging oiling holes.

wow submitter, I hope that joke came with a receipt

the funny part would be if the methane were to blow up and cause a tsunami that would cover Florida in poisonous goo.

now THAT would be amusing.

/amidoingitrite?
//I love these Death to America threads so much

Howie Spankowitz: ...and blowing.



Also thinks democrats blow.
And republicans suck.

If this were to occur, things would look good for my presidential campaign platform: Let's Blow Up the Moon!


"We will destroy the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard!"


Worst case, if the BP explosion doesn't stop the leak, maybe'll we'll have nuked some whales. Gotta nuke somethin'!

It's a crazy world. Dude was president of the US - arguably the most powerful man in the world - for 8 frikkin years. To this day, he still gets remembered as the fellow who got caught shoving a stogey inside a chunky girl.

I like how he literally only mentions blowing up the well for a few seconds, saying that is what they MAY have to do, and CNN makes it the title of the video. Give them an inch and they take an AU.

Bill Clinton: Navy Could Probably Stop The Gusher (new window)

Was Monica a Gusher?

They are getting closer to my solution.
cover with debris...
build a sand mountain, no explosive needed.
my solution is the only way to be sure..

as far as billy goes,
he's just fascinated with big bangs,
i doubt he knows much about leaks,
if history is any indicator,

I really don't think Slick Willy can be relied on to keep an unintentional spill under wraps.

what about rubble? Half of Detroit could be barged down and dumped onto the site.

much of NOLA could be, too.

all of Alabama.

Prank Call of Cthulhu: Just plug the hole, duh.

damn you i want a cigar

If only we had a President like former President Clinton.

So, we're still thinking about the Ben Afleck/Bruce Willis thing. God, it sucks up here.

What happens if they end up cracking the ocean floor down there? Imagine fissures all over the place spilling oil. How much oil is down there and how much will escape? Just really curious. Would the oil stop leaking when the field and the ocean were at the same relative pressure? Or would oil just seep up based on oil being heavier than water and then the entire oil field would be floating round the ocean?

TheShavingofOccam123: what about rubble? Half of Detroit could be barged down and dumped onto the site.

much of NOLA could be, too.

all of Alabama.

your house...

Blowing it up is a really STUPID idea. That would most likely just cause a MASSIVE hole in the ocean floor and thousands of times more oil gushing out all at once and no way of ever stopping it after that. Possibly creating a huge tsunami in the process.

btw it's worth noting that an underground blast doesn't create a hole the size of an above ground nuclear blast

you wouldn't actually be creating a "hole in the floor of the ocean", something like that would require a pretty massive amount of nuclear explosives

AdamK: btw it's worth noting that an underground blast doesn't create a hole the size of an above ground nuclear blast

you wouldn't actually be creating a "hole in the floor of the ocean", something like that would require a pretty massive amount of nuclear explosives

Depends on how deep below the surface the reservoir is, and how destabilized the drilling and the spill have made the ocean floor over it. It doesn't have to vaporize a hole, just split existing weak points and stress cracks wide open.

SgtArkie: Prank Call of Cthulhu: Just plug the hole, duh.

damn you i want a cigar

Here, let me offer you my humidor.

I think a MegaMaid would do a better job.

Lt. Cheese Weasel: Yea, the world needs more perjurers who lie directly to your face on teevee.

All politicians lie. Even the ones you like.

pete1729: TheShavingofOccam123: what about rubble? Half of Detroit could be barged down and dumped onto the site.

much of NOLA could be, too.

all of Alabama.

your house...

Either surrender and we take only rubble or we go all Sherman on on ya

Lt. Cheese Weasel: AdamK: btw it's worth noting that an underground blast doesn't create a hole the size of an above ground nuclear blast

you wouldn't actually be creating a "hole in the floor of the ocean", something like that would require a pretty massive amount of nuclear explosives

And only 45 miles offshore, think of the fun for the coast! Anyone who says bombing Deepwater Horizon is an answer should get clipped across the forehead with a fungo bat for being an idiot.

and anybody who would rule out a proven testable concept isn't an idiot?

JonnyBGoode: AdamK: btw it's worth noting that an underground blast doesn't create a hole the size of an above ground nuclear blast

you wouldn't actually be creating a "hole in the floor of the ocean", something like that would require a pretty massive amount of nuclear explosives

Depends on how deep below the surface the reservoir is, and how destabilized the drilling and the spill have made the ocean floor over it. It doesn't have to vaporize a hole, just split existing weak points and stress cracks wide open.

given how strong the pressure is of that well, i seriously doubt the ground is just "waiting to give way"

nostudme: Does Monica do underwater?

She's strictly a land whale.