> In the 1960s, Project Plowshare studied the effects of a nuclear explosion on geological materials on the ocean floor. Now, researcher Andy Haverly envisions taking it a step further as he looks for a way to save the planet.
> By pulverizing the basalt that makes up the seabed, such an explosion **could accelerate carbon sequestration**, which captures and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to reduce climate change, through a process known to scientists as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW).
> According to Haverly’s calculations, he wants to bury a nuclear device, a classic hydrogen bomb, **under the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Ocean**, at a depth of two to three miles in the basalt-rich seabed and about four to five miles below the water’s surface.
> The explosion would be contained within the water, and the basalt should absorb and trap most of the radiation locally. The researcher predicts “few or no loss of life due to the immediate effects of radiation.” However, there’s a caveat. In the long term, he acknowledges that the explosion will “impact people and cause losses.” Nevertheless, this increase in radiation would be, according to Haverly, “just a drop in the ocean” considering that **“each year we emit more radiation from coal-fired power plants and have already detonated over 2,000 nuclear devices”**
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DrMcDingus on
Hopefully Mr. Haverly is not currently in possession of one nuclear device.
[deleted] on
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PotatoPal7 on
The super villians always sound logical when they lay out their conclusions.
Seyon on
I’m not sure if I dislike this plan more than the permanent cloud seeding with sulfur dioxide.
This planet’s problems aren’t located on the bottom of the sea … if you get my drift.
Lucky_Goal933 on
The super villain/hero line was pretty much….Yes we will lose people but it’s cool because their sacrifices will save the planet 😳😳😳
BBTB2 on
Wouldn’t the blast generate an enormous sound wave – even if buried – that would kill ocean life for a large area around the blast site?
therealhairykrishna on
How is he planning to dig a hole big enough for a H bomb several miles deep, several miles below the ocean?
CalculonsPride on
Have we considered just dropping a giant ice cube into the ocean?
shpydar on
When did a sports online rag become an authority on „research“
And this „researcher“ doesn’t have any education or qualifications for nuclear sciences or geoengineering (he is a programmer) and their paper was published [on *arXiv*](https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.06623), a website of non-peer-reviewed scholarly articles.
>According to Haverly, who doesn’t have a background in climate science or nuclear engineering, “Seeing the movie *Oppenheimer* really brought nuclear power to the front of my mind,” he continued. “There are elements of this idea that are already well known—like Enhanced Rock Weathering, and detonating nuclear weapons underground—but combining all of these ideas has not been considered seriously before. And that’s the reason I posted this paper.
Basically the entire idea is from a total quack, is absolute garbage and shouldn’t be given any attention or a platform.
hart37 on
Okay but if Godzilla comes out swinging we have no one to blame but ourselves
VRGIMP27 on
Considering that this is relying on pulverizing basalt and evenly distributing it to increase CO2 uptake in the water, you don’t technically need to use a nuclear weapon. You could use a conventional explosive, you just wouldn’t get as much pulverization.
If you had a nuke big enough (think Tsar Bomba) you could avoid the increased radiation nuclear fallout issue, but then that would be a huge nuclear explosion.
I like the idea of using Basalt to increase CO2 uptake, but I feel like we would get more bang for our buck using small explosions on the sea bed in areas where we are specifically concentrating CO2 in ocean water on purpose.
arothmanmusic on
How does one even engineer the digging of a three mile deep hole below five miles of ocean?
VarmintSchtick on
Please do not disturb the one who slumbers in the deep. Please.
-HealingNoises- on
Honestly everything laid out in the article is not a bad plan. As long as you accept it’s under the rational that everything is getting worse for the next effectively forever as far as humanity is concerned. And that this plan is making things worse in a comparatively small local area in exchange for immensely disproportionate positive effects on excess carbon in the ocean and its slow nightmare acidification.
And we are going to have to undertake international incomprehensibly huge projects to modify the environment anyway.
So this may not sound crazy to anyone in 20
Years.
Luster-Purge on
I think I’ve seen this movie…it was called Pacific Rim.
Rin-Tohsaka-is-hot on
As ridiculous as it sounds, it seems like a relatively mild form of geo-engineering compared to the other plans that change atmospheric composition directly.
PaperbackBuddha on
We’ve got a president who’s on board for nuking hurricanes, so this has a shot. The proponents just need to characterize the detonation as making money for him, while somehow causing strife for immigrants and libs.
And hear me out, having a military parade right above ground zero would generate the HIGHEST RATINGS EVER for an event. How many of you would pay-per-view that shit?
Twix_McFlurry on
It’s not like we haven’t already nuked the Van Allen radiation belt, underground, underwater…. we’ve already detonated over 2000 nuclear bombs so what’s one more?
hawkwings on
If the device works, I wonder about the speed of the sequestration. We’re talking about CO2 migrating from the atmosphere worldwide to a single spot 2 miles underwater. It might take a long time for CO2 to migrate to the detonation point.
The-Angry-Alcemist on
Do you want Kaiju? Because that is how you wake up Kaiju.
DrJokerX on
Sounds like a great way to get a giant irradiated kaiju…
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> In the 1960s, Project Plowshare studied the effects of a nuclear explosion on geological materials on the ocean floor. Now, researcher Andy Haverly envisions taking it a step further as he looks for a way to save the planet.
> By pulverizing the basalt that makes up the seabed, such an explosion **could accelerate carbon sequestration**, which captures and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to reduce climate change, through a process known to scientists as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW).
> According to Haverly’s calculations, he wants to bury a nuclear device, a classic hydrogen bomb, **under the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Ocean**, at a depth of two to three miles in the basalt-rich seabed and about four to five miles below the water’s surface.
> The explosion would be contained within the water, and the basalt should absorb and trap most of the radiation locally. The researcher predicts “few or no loss of life due to the immediate effects of radiation.” However, there’s a caveat. In the long term, he acknowledges that the explosion will “impact people and cause losses.” Nevertheless, this increase in radiation would be, according to Haverly, “just a drop in the ocean” considering that **“each year we emit more radiation from coal-fired power plants and have already detonated over 2,000 nuclear devices”**
[removed]
Hopefully Mr. Haverly is not currently in possession of one nuclear device.
[removed]
The super villians always sound logical when they lay out their conclusions.
I’m not sure if I dislike this plan more than the permanent cloud seeding with sulfur dioxide.
[At least there isn’t a risk of a second nuke happening shortly after…](https://armscontrolcenter.org/fact-sheet-the-missing-tybee-bomb/)
This planet’s problems aren’t located on the bottom of the sea … if you get my drift.
The super villain/hero line was pretty much….Yes we will lose people but it’s cool because their sacrifices will save the planet 😳😳😳
Wouldn’t the blast generate an enormous sound wave – even if buried – that would kill ocean life for a large area around the blast site?
How is he planning to dig a hole big enough for a H bomb several miles deep, several miles below the ocean?
Have we considered just dropping a giant ice cube into the ocean?
When did a sports online rag become an authority on „research“
And this „researcher“ doesn’t have any education or qualifications for nuclear sciences or geoengineering (he is a programmer) and their paper was published [on *arXiv*](https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.06623), a website of non-peer-reviewed scholarly articles.
[From his own words](https://www.vice.com/en/article/nuclear-bomb-earths-crust-geoengineering/) he got the idea from watching the Oppenheimer movie….
>According to Haverly, who doesn’t have a background in climate science or nuclear engineering, “Seeing the movie *Oppenheimer* really brought nuclear power to the front of my mind,” he continued. “There are elements of this idea that are already well known—like Enhanced Rock Weathering, and detonating nuclear weapons underground—but combining all of these ideas has not been considered seriously before. And that’s the reason I posted this paper.
Basically the entire idea is from a total quack, is absolute garbage and shouldn’t be given any attention or a platform.
Okay but if Godzilla comes out swinging we have no one to blame but ourselves
Considering that this is relying on pulverizing basalt and evenly distributing it to increase CO2 uptake in the water, you don’t technically need to use a nuclear weapon. You could use a conventional explosive, you just wouldn’t get as much pulverization.
If you had a nuke big enough (think Tsar Bomba) you could avoid the increased radiation nuclear fallout issue, but then that would be a huge nuclear explosion.
I like the idea of using Basalt to increase CO2 uptake, but I feel like we would get more bang for our buck using small explosions on the sea bed in areas where we are specifically concentrating CO2 in ocean water on purpose.
How does one even engineer the digging of a three mile deep hole below five miles of ocean?
Please do not disturb the one who slumbers in the deep. Please.
Honestly everything laid out in the article is not a bad plan. As long as you accept it’s under the rational that everything is getting worse for the next effectively forever as far as humanity is concerned. And that this plan is making things worse in a comparatively small local area in exchange for immensely disproportionate positive effects on excess carbon in the ocean and its slow nightmare acidification.
And we are going to have to undertake international incomprehensibly huge projects to modify the environment anyway.
So this may not sound crazy to anyone in 20
Years.
I think I’ve seen this movie…it was called Pacific Rim.
As ridiculous as it sounds, it seems like a relatively mild form of geo-engineering compared to the other plans that change atmospheric composition directly.
We’ve got a president who’s on board for nuking hurricanes, so this has a shot. The proponents just need to characterize the detonation as making money for him, while somehow causing strife for immigrants and libs.
And hear me out, having a military parade right above ground zero would generate the HIGHEST RATINGS EVER for an event. How many of you would pay-per-view that shit?
It’s not like we haven’t already nuked the Van Allen radiation belt, underground, underwater…. we’ve already detonated over 2000 nuclear bombs so what’s one more?
If the device works, I wonder about the speed of the sequestration. We’re talking about CO2 migrating from the atmosphere worldwide to a single spot 2 miles underwater. It might take a long time for CO2 to migrate to the detonation point.
Do you want Kaiju? Because that is how you wake up Kaiju.
Sounds like a great way to get a giant irradiated kaiju…