Extremely large explosions are often the result of a chain reaction—a rapid sequence of stages, each triggering the next stage and releasing greater magnitudes of energy. For example, a gun is fired by first applying energy to pull a trigger. That, in turn, releases the greater energy stored in a compressed spring that accelerates a firing pin into a percussion cap. Its explosion ignites the propellent that rapidly burns and generates gases that accelerate a bullet down a gun barrel.
A second but tragic example would be a large aircraft crashing into a tall building and releasing 5 × 1016 ergs of kinetic energy. The impact ignites the plane’s fuel. Within an hour, 5 × 1018 ergs of chemical energy are released. That heat weakens the building’s structure, causing it to collapse, releasing 1019 ergs of potential energy (about 25% of a small atomic bomb).
Likewise, the explosion of a hydrogen bomb is the end result of a rapid series of smaller explosions. First, a relatively tiny chemical explosion compresses nuclear fuel into a supercritical mass. This produces an atomic explosion, a fission reaction. That heat initiates a thermonuclear, or fusion, reaction—a thousand times the energy of an atomic bomb.
An astounding, literally Earth-shaking amount of energy accumulated in stages in the subterranean water before the flood. All that energy was finally released when the powerful fountains of the great deep launched water and rocks into space. Most of the rocks and water later merged and became comets, asteroids, and TNOs.1 The four sequential energy sources were:
These four energy sources will be briefly described. But first, we will estimate the total energy that had to be in the subterranean water to launch all the matter that escaped Earth’s gravity. (Note: Earth’s escape velocity is 11.2 km/sec.)