Phasers' effect on planetary crust

[Rathark]

There has been a lot of talk about one ST episode where a fleet of 30 Romulan warships threaten to destroy an entire planetray crust with their phasers. While these 30 warships obviously wouldn't stand up to one ISD, I was wondering how the chain reaction generated by the phasers on the planetary crust would compare with the raw power of an ISD's combined heavy turbolasers.

To use a hopefully appropriate analogy, phasers are like the handful of matches that destroy an entire forest, while HTLs are more like the 18" guns utilized by a REAL warship.

[Dark Primus]

There were 10 Romulan Warbirds and 10 Keldon cruisers who used only their primary weapons and not their secondary weapons, which i find strange if they really wanted to make maximum damage to the planet.

[Lord of the Farce]

If this is TDIC we're talking about, then as far as I recall, they used both beam weapons and torps. The thing that puzzles/annoys most people is the fact that the (huge) shockwaves doesn't match the (relatively tiny) explosions that we see. The most sensible explaination I have heard of so far is that the shockwaves are subspace related "reactions" of some kind.

[Typhonis 1]

Also theres the fact that when they state they hacedestroyed 30% of the crust all you can see are a few foret fires not a magma filled hole the relative size of Asia

[Master of Ossus]

The best way to justify the dialogue would be to say that their definition of the term, "destroyed" is different from how most people interpret it immediately (for instance, vaporized). It really doesn't make much sense, but remember that TDiC cannot suddenly increase Trek firepower. Rather, it should be taken into context with other instances from past shows, that have shown us more definitively about Trek firepower.

[SirNitram]

Again, some simple stuff. The dialogue about 30% can and should be thrown out. (Remember a main character pointed out sensors were being fooled) As for the relative firepower on the crust, I think it's in the low Gigaton range when affecting bare rock and carbon.

[Dark Primus]

Or the special effects team didn't know how to make molten lava and huge planetary eruptions? Maybe better for looking after the script and see what it says in there.

[RayCav of ASVS]

....is nil

[Blaze]

maybe when they sed destroyed they ment unihabbitable due to the radiation from there weapons.

as i recall they were trying to wipe out all life on the planet

[Master of Ossus]

maybe when they sed destroyed they ment unihabbitable due to the radiation from there weapons.

as i recall they were trying to wipe out all life on the planet

Actually, they were trying to remove the Founders as a military threat. That would only mean eliminating all complex life on the planet, but that is not consistent with what we saw on screen. The damage would have been far too small, from the visuals, to wipe out the Founders. It would really not have been a devastating blow to the Founders, unless the bombardment had gone on unnabated for hours on end.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Or the special effects team didn't know how to make molten lava and huge planetary eruptions? Maybe better for looking after the script and see what it says in there.

Only stupid cowfuckers would use that argument.

[NecronLord]

Answer is, they do "sod all!"

[seanrobertson]

There has been a lot of talk about one ST episode where a fleet of 30 Romulan warships threaten to destroy an entire planetray crust with their phasers. While these 30 warships obviously wouldn't stand up to one ISD, I was wondering how the chain reaction generated by the phasers on the planetary crust would compare with the raw power of an ISD's combined heavy turbolasers.

To use a hopefully appropriate analogy, phasers are like the handful of matches that destroy an entire forest, while HTLs are more like the 18" guns utilized by a REAL warship.

First, let me set things straight regarding the actual numbers.

There were 6 Romulan Warbirds present, and 14 Keldons. That's
a total of 20 ships.

The plan was to spend five or six hours on the operation. One
of the officers in charge, a changeling impersonating "Colonel
Lovok," said:

"Computer analysis indicates that the planet's crust will be
destroyed within one hour; and the mantle, within five."

By this, he obviously means the SOLID portion of the planet (at
least on Earth, the upper mantle is solid and much thinner than
the lower mantle/asthenosphere).

It's not truly necessary to totally remove all of the crust to just
strike at the mantle, but the fact that four or five hours were
going to be spent pounding on the mantle means most of that
crust should be gone. Reduced to neutrinos, transitioned out
of space-time--whatever.

The crust would take somewhat in excess of 4E28J to vaporize.
If it took the full five or six hours (we'll say six) to get the job
done, that would average out to a fleet firepower of 1.9E24 W.
Each ship would contribute an avg. of 9.2E22W, or 22 teratons per
second.

Check me for math errors...I gotta go to bed. Anyway, that actually
compares pretty favorably to an ISD's firepower on a planetary
bombardment basis.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

What was the surface of the Founders' Planet like, anyway? I can't remember except for some rocks and that lake? of the Founders.

(Now if the entire surface of the planet was covered by an ocean of Founders, save for some island chains, that would have been cool. Like Solaris.)

[Lord of the Farce]

The crust would take somewhat in excess of 4E28J to vaporize.

How much energy would it take to simply melt instead?

[seanrobertson]

The crust would take somewhat in excess of 4E28J to vaporize.

How much energy would it take to simply melt instead?

Good question...I wish I knew

I lifted that no. from Michael's NDF Theory page. Without figuring out
the volume and approx. mass of the crust, I can only give a rough
guess as to...I dunno...maybe around 8-10 times less energy?
It'd probably be barely within an order of magnitude, but that's
just off the cuff.