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Jason is the founder of Contribute Content. Jason is a hobbyist writer that likes to write on a variety of subjects but has a special interest in politics and controversial subjects.
by CC-Jason on Sun, 05/30/2010 - 20:25
BP is still struggling to stop the oil gushing out of the hole they drilled in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Lots of people have ideas about how to close this hole, but not all of them have been thought through very well.
One of the proposed methods that's been floating around the internet is to cave in the well with an explosive charge. This is flat out the most crazy way of approaching the situation. If performed, it has the potential to be catastrophic and leave no other options but to let nature run its course. When nature runs its course, it means that the whole deposit will be emptied into the Gulf of Mexico.
Right now there's a hole that's 21 inches in diameter with a pipe in it. The pipe has been cemented into the rock by forcing a cement mixture into the void between the pipe and the surrounding rock. The cementing around the pipe produces a seal between the rock that's been drilled and the outside of the metal pipe that's been pushed down into the hole. The cement also helps hold the pipe from being pushed out of the hole if the well is under pressure.
BP recently tried to perform a top kill on the well. The top killing of the gushing oil well failed. BP pumped a heavy mud down into the hole using over 6,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. This is the pressure required to overcome the pressure within the well. It's an enormous amount of pressure to overcome. To give you an idea of how much pressure 6,000psi is - the bags that rescue teams use to lift cars or heavy beams off of trapped people are normally using under 120psi of pressure. This well is under a lot of pressure.
The well could be under pressure for a variety of reasons, but the most logical one is that the deposit is in a rock formation that is moving and it's being pushed down onto the oil. The pressure is caused by the weight of the rock above the formation and the weight of the water above the rock.
In the drilling industry they use a process called “Hydraulic Fracturing” to fracture the rock around a well that's not producing the way they want it to. This fracturing of the rock allows fluids to flow better through the fractured material because it provides more passageways for the liquid to flow through. It essentially destabilized the rock structure and makes it more porous.
We already know that the rock formation above the pocket of oil is unstable, it's flexing and it's putting pressure on the oil. Using an explosive charge within the geological structure could destabilize the rock formation even more. The detonation of an explosive charge may produce the same effect as hydraulic fracturing or fracking the surrounding rock.
Worst case scenario for detonating an explosive charge to try and close the well is that the whole geological structure could collapse. A catastrophic failure such as this would allow the pocket of oil, in its entirety, to escape the surrounding rock and flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
A catastrophic collapse of the geological structure is possible, but it's also improbable. Simply put, it's a lot of rock to break up.
The more likely outcome is the creation of a large hole with a porous rock structure over the top of it. Since the rock chunks would not magically mesh and seal together in a way that would seal out 6,000 pounds per square inch of pressure, we'd end up with a huge underwater oil seep that would probably eclipse what is happening now with virtually unimpeded flow through the broken rock.
For an effective visualization of why an explosive charge shouldn't be used to try and stop the oil - just fill a glass with sand an pour some water into it. The water seeping through the sand should show you that a bunch of broken rock above the well isn't going to hold back the oil at 6,000psi.
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To the author, you truly do not understand how this explosion would work.
The bomb is not detonated on the ground, it is detonated far above the pipe. There will be no rock or earth to explode at all. No hole will be blasted in the ground. The intent of the explosion, is to use the WATER ITSELF to act as the agent to compress the pipe shut under pressure. If you have ever watched a something explode underwater, it actually appears to implode so to speak.
The outer edge of this implosion is where the pipe will be located, and it will be sealed under the pressure. The ground will not be affected, no rock will be displaced at all.
It's a 21" pipe. I'm taking a guess but I'm betting that it's run of mill schedule 40 pipe - MAYBE schedule 80 (that would be the wall thickness of the pipe). It's not going to take a bomb to compress this pipe closed.
Explode... Implode... There's a big difference so you should make up your mind, I think you're the one who actually truly doesn't understand.
I see what you're trying to get at though, the explosion would displace the water and then when it returns back to fill the void caused by the explosion there would be some pressure there. Given that, don't you think that the optimum place for the bomb would be at the center of the explosion so that the full rush of water coming back would press on this pipe?
Even if what you are saying was half logical -do you really think that the explosion is going to compress the end of the pipe which is sitting just off the ground and not effect the ground?
All in all - the bomb idea sucks.
Bottom line, we don't know until we try, until then, don't say for a fact that it will or will not work. Unless you have knowledge in all the scientific fields involved in this mess and potential (solutions) all you're are doing is mere guess work.
a controlled nuclear blast would in fact fuse the entire hole shut with collapsed molten lava like mineral rock and materials from oil, gas,cement, pipe,sand,gravel and rock.
A nuclear blast wouldn't generate heat long enough to "fuse the hole shut with collapsed molten lava". Do a Google search on TRINITITE and you'll see what a nuclear blast would produce (a thin layer of sand-like rock or a glassy finish to the rock).
Now, if you want to discuss a "controlled" nuclear explosion, I'm just going to rebut with - there's a lot more involved in "controlling" a nuclear blast than in "controlling" what's coming out of that hole in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
Top-kill, junk-shot, capping - these are unlikely to work, as has been shown already. As you mention, the pressure is too great. In line with the link below, I think we should consider the rational argument about the cause of this leak, - the pressure exerted by the well far exceeded the tolerances of any of the technology that was aimed at preventing it, - it literally destroyed the entire oil rig in a fireball. So, knowing that fact, what are the odds of any existing back-up technology being able to plug this hole, especially after it has moved far out of control? Minimal unfortunately.
The Deep Horizon was working at roughly 5000 feet depth, from where it had already drilled another 13000 feet through the crust into the oil reservoir, that's a lot of rock, ample thickness to protect the reservoir from collapsing in the event of an explosion. So blowing up an explosive charge, of sufficient magnitude, could force thousands (hundreds of thousands), of tonnes of rock against that leaking pipe. Explosives are used throughout industries to produce pressures instantly which far exceed what could be conventionally produced. BP needs something with enough force to stop this leak. It isn't completely insane to think that a carefully placed explosive (nuke) could conceivably move enough rock/sand/debris into place to thoroughly seal that hole.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/209573-Mother-of-all-gushers-BP-Oil-Di...
The problem is the risk involved with a last resort such as an explosive charge. It's taking BP at least a few days to get their act together to plan to cut the end off of a pipe at the bottom of the ocean. Once you've blown up a bunch of rock around the hole you're pretty much left with no other options as you'd have to excavate the hole to get to it. You'd likely shatter all of the concrete that's been placed in between the rock and the pipe as well and it would leave the pipe loose against the rock face - maybe even enough to push it out.
As a last resort the explosion might be an option, if the oil is going to leak out anyways we might as well just let it all go in one shot, clean it up the best we can and get it over with instead of having it leak for the next seven years.
The oil is miles below rock and I don't say I'm the expert but I see no scientific backing in your story that explosives are not the best idea yet...
I don't believe that gravel (the blasted rock) is going to hold back 6,000psi of oil. Crushed rock is used around your house for drainage because it's porous and allows water to flow through it. How is and explosive charge that produces a bunch of gravel to bury the hole going to hold back the oil?
Agreed ,the psi is way too high to control an explosion in exactly the right way ,if at all- it's beyond anything we can defeat at this depth.It doesn't leave many opitions.They will blast it with fingers crossed ... time to look at all ideas outside of BPs ring fencing.
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