[fbdab103]

Big fan of WH40k as the exemplar of massive scale. This article[0] defines a super volcano as

>The size of volcanic eruptions can be expressed by the volume or mass of magma released (table 1), with super-eruptions yielding in excess of 450 km3, or more than 1×10^15 kg, of magma (Sparks et al. 2005).

Wikipedia says the Empire State Building has a volume of 1e6 m3 or 0.001 km3. So the eruption would be equivalent to at least 450,000 Empire State Buildings worth of magma. Mt Everest is some 90km3, so only 5 Mt Everest equivalents.

These amounts are too big for me to comprehend, but yeah. Going to need a bigger boat.

[0] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsta.200...

[roenxi]

Those numbers aren't that large. They aren't small in anyone's estimation, but the Empire State Building is a lot less than the amount of material a motivated earthmoving company can get through in a year.

There'd be some interesting technical challenges tearing down Everest, but it is conceivable. The part that requires creative thinking is why it would be worth it spending that much money.

[kabouseng]

Except that volume gets released with an eruption, not over a year...Imagine 5 mount everests lifting up into the air and coming down at the same time.

[suzzer99]

To build the Panama Canal, excavators removed enough spoil to fill a city block 19 miles high.

[mckn1ght]

You all are talking quantitatively about volumes, but there’s also the qualitative difference between soil and magma.

[danbruc]

1800 Panama Canals still sound like quite a lot of work.

[beAbU]

But how many school buses is that?

[clarionbell]

That's exterminatus scale of explosion. Well, one cyclonic torpedo maybe.