Timeline for How to build a trap to last the ages?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 18, 2018 at 13:58 | comment | added | ivan_pozdeev | I must add that the tomb needs to have geometry that will preserve the hazardous atmosphere even after being unsealed. Otherwise, only the first adventuring party will fall victim to it. Which will most likely be tomb thieves not long after the sealing, so this wouldn't work for ancient ruins. | |
| Apr 17, 2018 at 0:30 | comment | added | smatterer | @RemarkLima: Yes carbon monoxide is far more toxic than carbon dioxide but, unlike the dioxide, carbon monoxide is not naturally occurring in large amounts (AFAIK) and it is not heavier than air so it doesn't pool the way that CO2 does. | |
| Apr 16, 2018 at 6:20 | comment | added | RemarkLima | Wouldn't carbon monoxide be better? | |
| Apr 12, 2018 at 12:08 | comment | added | Vilx- | Another real-world danger of CO2 - wells. CO2 is heavier than air, so it tends to accumulate inside wells. Plenty of people have died trying to go down a well (to clean them or rescue something that fell in) only to pass out halfway down. CO2 in fact seems a pretty good trap - it could even occur naturally, without it being explicitly designed for. | |
| Apr 12, 2018 at 0:52 | history | edited | smatterer | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Apr 12, 2018 at 0:44 | comment | added | smatterer | @DJClayworth: My understanding is that the symptoms of CO2 poisoning depend on the concentration in a complicated way but "CO2 levels of more than 30% act rapidly leading to loss of consciousness in seconds. This would explain why victims of accidental intoxications often do not act to resolve the situation...". | |
| Apr 11, 2018 at 19:27 | comment | added | Doktor J | @DJClayworth so the solution is to use a vent that releases primarily non-CO2 gases... a natural gas well would work quite well for this, primarily venting methane. The only caveat here is that methane is less dense than air and would thus rise and dissipate, so the trap would ideally need a reservoir to trap the methane, and some manner of release valves to saturate a given chamber with it for a short period of time (long enough to asphyxiate the unfortunate adventurer) -- the idea being that the reservoir self-replenishes from the well over a relatively short period of time (say 24-48 hr). | |
| Apr 11, 2018 at 6:31 | comment | added | Arcanist Lupus | Fun fact - aphyxiation is caused by a lack of oxygen. But our bodies don't detect a lack of oxygen - when we were evolving lack of oxygen was usually accompanied by a CO2 abundance, so our bodies detect that instead. Which means that a room full of nitrogen will kill you, and you won't be aware that you can't breathe until you keel over. | |
| Apr 10, 2018 at 17:18 | comment | added | sharur | @RobWatts the Pythia at Delphia (where the famous Oracle presided) did have a geological fault. Some things thought to be contained in its gas emissions are CO2, H2S, CH4, and C2H2. | |
| Apr 10, 2018 at 14:13 | comment | added | DJClayworth | Just to bring science in here, CO2 is indeed odourless, but its presence in significant quantities will cause you to feel seriously 'out of breath', long before it will actually kill you. | |
| Apr 10, 2018 at 11:32 | comment | added | Baldrickk | @smatterer what about livescience.com/61802-gate-to-hell-deadly-secret-found.html? And as it is CO2, it's also undetectable - at least not until the effects are felt. (You do bring a canary on your underground trips, don't you?) | |
| Apr 10, 2018 at 6:38 | comment | added | DJohnM | A "sour gas" well produces lethal levels of hydrogen sulfide... | |
| Apr 10, 2018 at 3:44 | comment | added | smatterer | I don’t off hand know of any ancient structures filled with noxious gas. I had in mind: [1] Most underground mines need artificial ventilation to clear out gases. [2] Some natural cave systems have unbreathable atmospheres and [3] The theory that the Pythia at Delphi was sent into a trance by underground gases seeping into her chamber. I was also thinking of the Lake Nyos disaster even though it was a one-off gassing that occurred outdoors. | |
| Apr 10, 2018 at 3:05 | comment | added | Rob Watts | The geothermal vent seems like a good idea. Are there any real-world examples of that? I'm wondering how hard it would be to actually find a geothermal vent like that and make sure it's not going to go inactive in the near future. | |
| Apr 10, 2018 at 3:01 | history | answered | smatterer | CC BY-SA 3.0 |