Sun exploding and super Volcanoes

An exploding star is orders of magnitude more powerful than if every volcano or and super-volcano on the planet all blew at the same exact moment catastrophically.

Although having all the volcanoes and super-volcanoes going off at the same exact time might, maybe, if all the right pieces are in place and everything works just right, shatter the planet into fragments, having the sun go nova is going to turn the entire planet into either a molten cinder or a puff of astronomic dust blasting out of the system at some tens of thousands of miles per second.

Neither scenario is survivable by life as we know it.

Why would you want to write such a depressing story? Is it simply angst, ie trying to get something off your chest, or is there truly a point to it?

Arthur C. Clarke wrote a book called Childhood's End where an alien species contacted humanity and it was later revealed that they had done so because they were going to destroy the planet or it was going to be destroyed one way or the other (it's been awhile). I highly recommend you read it.

FOTSGreg said:

Why would you want to write such a depressing story?

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Is it any more ridiculous (and filled with comedy gold) than The Core? Or Deep Impact?

RavenCorinnCarluk said:

Without knowing the premise of your story, I can't form a full opinion. However, I would personally pick one or the other. Having both seems like a bit of overkill. Like stomping on a big, then lighting it on fire. You only need the one to kill it, and to do both is sadistic.

Just my two cents.

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Also, the sun's not due to explode for several million (billion?) years, whereas Jellystone Park (sorry, old Yogi fan ), is apparently long overdue an explosion.

Yeah, I'd go with the supervolcanoes. It's more awesome (and kind of more believable), and also allows for a 'slower death', so there's more to write about. Sadism for the win!

There's nothing wrong with writing a good depressing story. I for one certainly enjoy an apocalypse. It's very interesting to write about how people react in an end-of-world scenario.

bkwriter said:

I have been watching this show Universe on the history channel and have watched an episode where the sun eplodes, will not explode, it will just expand then go out.

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Well, that's it - the Sun won't explode, it will (over many years, probably thousands or longer) slowly burn out an expand into a red giant, enveloping Earth's orbit. But Earthlings will have centuries of warning, unless it's at such a barbaric state that all they notice is "the Sun is getting dimmer, and it's getting colder too!"

bkwriter said:

And an episode where super volcanoes will go off to cover the sun and turn the earth to ice.

that's what I want to do with a story but I'm woundering will it be bealivable to have both happen at the same time. If all the volcanoes go off at the same time, then a few days or weeks, the sun explodes? Is there a way to get some details, or should I just chop it up to one.

Thanks

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The Sun exploding would be unbelievable just because it's not that kind of star (also, as FOTSGreg indicates, the story would end rather suddenly), but it might be an interesting and not-TOO-coincidental thing if after noticing changes in the Sun over a few years and decades scientists around the world are convinced the Sun is going out and going to become a red giant, that humankind's long-term future is either in space or extinction, they convince the major Governments to act and to start a super let's-colonize-space program, and as its gearing up THEN a supervolcano goes off...that provides another challenge for the protagonists, and makes the reader think "Oh, no, they'll NEVER be done in time!" But of course they do.

Here's a nice page on the Sun's future: The Once and Future Sun. Wikipedia has some more stuff on the future of the Earth

The Sun is now in the middle of its main-sequence existence, and has gradually been getting brighter.

It started off at about 0.7 of its present brightness, and when it leaves the main sequence about 6.3 billion years from now, it will be about 2.21 times brighter than at present.

But about 1.1 billion years from now, it will be about 10% brighter, and that will be enough to allow water vapor to enter the upper atmosphere without freezing out. Solar UV will dissociate it and the resulting hydrogen will evaporate into outer space. That will make the oceans slowly evaporate into outer space, leaving oxygen behind.

A few more billion years, and what remains of the Earth's water will likely produce a runaway greenhouse effect, much like what Venus has.

Plate tectonics will likely grind to a halt around then, from lack of water and less radioactive heat generation in the Earth's interior.

There may still be volcanoes, but they will be giant, super-Hawaiian shield volcanoes like those on Mars.


The Sun will gradually become a red giant, taking about 1.3 billion years since departing the main sequence. Though hydrogen burning will have stopped in its core, it will start in a layer surrounding it. It will expand to Venus's present orbit size, and the Earth will get a surface temperature of about 2000 K. The Sun will blow off something like 28% of its mass in a big solar wind, making the Earth move out to 1.4 times its present orbit size.

At the end of that time, the Sun will start burning helium to carbon and oxygen in its center, which will reorganize its structure, making it shrink and get dimmer, about 10 times its present size and 40 times its present luminosity.

But it will consume its central helium in about 110 million years, expanding to 20 times its present size and 100 times its present luminosity as it does so. Helium burning will start in a shell around the center, making it expand to red gianthood in 20 million years. It will grow to the size of the Earth's present orbit and its luminosity will be about 3000 times its present value.

It will blow off more matter, ending in 4 big pulses. The 4th one will blow off everything but the carbon-oxygen core, which then cools to become a white dwarf. The Earth will be nearly 2 times farther from the Sun than it is now.


The Sun won't explode, and its changes will be so slow that it will be hard to notice over anyone's lifetime. But it will change.

I would personally go with the supervolcano, as there will be survivors to make a story about. That is personal preference.

I would avoid covering both disasters in the same story. Even though both are scenarios that will eventually happen, I think a lot of readers still have to suspend a significant amount of disbelief to follow a storyline centered on either one, and having both catastrophes occupy the same story arc would strain the suspension of disbelief a bit too much.

Not to mention that adding supervolcanoes to a nova is like blowing someone up with a nuke, and then kicking the corpse in the shin.

alaskamatt17 said:

I would personally go with the supervolcano, as there will be survivors to make a story about.

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Wasn't there already a movie about a supervolcano going off? Even named Supervolcano? And movies like Core have already tapped the brain-dead center of American movie goers, so you might have to stretch even further.

You might have to drill to the center of the sun, for instance.

The sun is made of burning coal, you could say, but only the surface is burning. (This will appeal to Creationists.) After some difficulty with their sunscreen (it's supposed to have an SPF of infinity, but doesn't) the crew breaks through the burning crust. Inside the sun is balmy, and there are caverns with oceans and green plants and humans (and dinosaurs!) that live in a Tahiti-like Garden of Eden without clothes or sin. Until the Earth spaceship shows up, and all those people have to die to save us. The captain of the ship (missing an eye) will of course want to carry out the mission given him by his corrupt and dissolute government, but the handsome chief scientist goes against him. A bloody mutiny ensues, and the affections of a lovely assistant who looks much like a young Laura Dern will be at stake.

Call it Mutiny in the Sun.

I vote the super volcano. I mean who doesnt love a good book where volcanoes are actually super volcanoes. Thats my kind of plot twist. Who knew they were plotting to become super all along..darn those volcanoes.