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I'd like to know how volcanic activity on hive worlds are met.

In Mechanicum there is a forge on Mars that controled the volcanic activity, so the technology for this exists in the Imperium - at least for the AdMech.

1) Do you think this technology is known in the Imperium or is it only an AdMech speciality? Or has this technology been lost during the heresy?
2) If it is known, how many hive worlds will control their volcanic activity?
3) If it is not known or fails to work - will the shields protect the hive from a volcanic eruption?
4) Is there still volcanic activity on Terra?
5) If so, could there be a volcanic eruption within the Imperial Palace or the Ecclesiarchal Palace?

I would say it is very likely that most hive worlds have complete control over geological activity. It is theoretically possible for us to control volcanoes today, the biggest obstacle is price, not technology. Hive worlds must control this, otherwise millions could die in a natural disaster.

How can we control volcanos on Earth today? Not regarding costs or anything. What technology let you control smaller volcanos like Mt. St. Helens up to super-volcanos like Yellowstone?

Edit:
The problem is, that we could put a plug into a volcano, but this is only delaying the inevitable. The pressure is still building underneath. To control volcanos this way, it is necessary to fortify the crust of the earth so that no volcano can build enough pressure to break through. That would mean that no tectonic shifting will be possible anymore.

A Vocanic eruption is mainly caused by a build up of pressure in the magma underneath the crust. With the appropriate tech and availability of materials my theories are:
1) use of a drill or some fandangled device to open up the channels within the volcano at regular intervals. Stopping the amount of pressure build up by periodically releasing the pressure.
2)controled explosions within the volcanoes magma shafts to achieve the same effect?

My ideas anyway

Dan

The problem with a drilled hole in the crust is, that

1) if the pressure is already that high that an eruption is about to take place soon, drilling a hole will have the same effect as a needle has on a balloon. It will cause the balloon to explode / the volcano to erupt. Maybe less violently than without the drill.
2) if the pressure is not high, then there will be the possibility that the magma plugs the drill hole and you have to start all over - with unlimited amount of resources that won't be a problem though.
3) if I recall correctly, no one has drilled through the crust up to today. The deepest drill was done by Russia about 12+km. It took them about 20 years to drill that deep and they couldn't go any deeper because of the heat. And they still didn't reached any magma chamber or broke through the crust.

Edit: Not saying it can't be done in the future but with today's technology I doubt that we could control a volcano, even with unlimited resources at hand.

Grimmzahn wrote:2) if the pressure is not high, then there will be the possibility that the magma plugs the drill hole and you have to start all over - with unlimited amount of resources that won't be a problem though.

My theory was assuming the pressure was low, and if the materials and resources were available to drill at regular intervals this solves the pressure from building to a dangerous point i would have thought.

I agree that if the pressure was already high, its a baaad idea lol. In a 40k environment i wonder if some form of sheild would be viable to help contain the first pressure release. Im playing with ideas now which is normally a bad idea
Dan

Grimmzahn wrote:I'd like to know how volcanic activity on hive worlds are met.

In Mechanicum there is a forge on Mars that controled the volcanic activity, so the technology for this exists in the Imperium - at least for the AdMech.

1) Do you think this technology is known in the Imperium or is it only an AdMech speciality? Or has this technology been lost during the heresy?
2) If it is known, how many hive worlds will control their volcanic activity?
3) If it is not known or fails to work - will the shields protect the hive from a volcanic eruption?
4) Is there still volcanic activity on Terra?
5) If so, could there be a volcanic eruption within the Imperial Palace or the Ecclesiarchal Palace?

1) Most hive worlds are older than the IoM and date back to the first colonisation of space by humans and so have ancient tech than keeps working even without the knowledge of the current inhabitants, also it is relatively easy to believe that most human settlers of the time would have built their cities in good locations, instead of on dangerous fault lines.
3) If an eruption happened near a hive city, all they would need would be a few trenches or craters to divert flow of magma, which are easy for a hive world's pdf to make.
4, 5)There is no fluff about Terran volcanic activity, most likely they have developed tech that not only stops eruptions but utilises the process for power.

Thats where Geothermal power comes in!

My comment on this is that Mars have a VERY FEW volcanic activities. Our scientist guess that because Mars don't have continent's like Earth to move that Mars magma is more steady than our own, and because of that Mars have seen last volcanic eruption a LONG TIME AGO.

As for other worlds, they just found a way to emit all that energy into massive Forge World machines ( my gess is this because 40k don't have fusion plants and the plasma generators are much expensive for that. This way the energy is free and the threat of voulcans are minimal ).