Originally posted by NemeBro
I don't want to look at them all, but which calcs do you see as bullshit, and why?
Calc of Twin Lamps.
We certainly start off big, with Melkor's collapse of the Twin Lamps of Illuin and Ormal, which were the first structures devised by the Valar to cast light across the entire planet of Arda/Earth (succeeded by the Twin Trees Telperion and Laurelin, whose fruit was endowed with the same light, that eventually survived only in the triad of the Silmaril gems).
Quote:
But Melkor, trusting in the strength of Utummo and the might of his servants, came forth suddenly to war, and struck the first blow, ere the Valar were prepared; and he assailed the lights of Illuin and Ormal, and cast down their pillars and broke their lamps. In the overthrow of the mighty pillars lands were broken and seas arose in tumult; and when the lamps spilled destroying flame was poured over the Earth. And the shape of Arda and the symmetry of its waters and its lands was marred in that time, so that the first designs of the Valar were never after restored.
Chapter 1 ("Of the Beginning of Days"😉; Page 29 (HarperCollins, 2008 Edition)
Bolded important text for emphasis.
So clearly, the devastation wrought by Melkor's collapse of the Twin Lamps was immense, being planetary in scale. But let's dig deeper to get something more quantifiable.
A description of the creation of the Twin Lamps:
Quote:
...Aulë at the prayer of Yavanna wrought two mighty lamps for the lighting of the Middle-earth which he had built amid the encircling seas. Then Varda filled the lamps and Manwë hallowed them, and the Valar set them upon high pillars, more lofty far than are any mountains of the later days. One lamp they raised near to the north of Middle-earth, and it was named Illuin; and the other was raised in the south, and it was named Ormal; and the lights of the Lamps of the Valar flowed out over the Earth, so that all was lit as it were in a changeless day.
Chapter 1, Page 27 (same edition).
The pillars upon which the lamps were situated were massive in size, dwarfing any of the future mountains raised by the Valar. This leads us directly to the next quote:
Quote:
...and since Melkor was returned to Middle-earth and they could not yet overcome him, the Valar fortified their dwelling, and upon the shores of the sea they raised the Pelóri, the Mountains of Aman, highest upon Earth. And above all the mountains of the Pelóri was that height upon whose summit Manwë set his throne. Taniquetil the Elves name that holy mountain[...]From their halls upon Taniquetil Manwë and Varda could look across the Earth even into the furthest East.
Chapter 1, Page 30 (same edition)
The Pelóri mountain range were created by the Valar as a natural barrier to Aman and Valinor, in direct response to Melkor's destruction of the Twin Lamps and the Valars' first occupation on Middle-earth itself. They are established as being the tallest peaks on Tolkienverse Earth, even surpassing the Thangorodrim slags raised by Morgoth in later centuries (by a whole lot, as we'll see in a minute). But the crucial piece of information comes at the end of the quote: the tallest mountain of the Pelóri, Taniquetil, is so high that its summit enables an observer to view to the opposite ends of the planet.
Fortunately, the Atlas of Middle-earth provides us with a lore-accurate map depicting the world of Arda during the early First Age as a demonstration of this significant viewpoint (note that at this stage, Arda/Earth was actually still a flat plane, Eru not shaping the planet into a spherical geiod until millennia lafter, with the sinking of the island Númenor: presumably the artist made a spherical Arda for easier reference to viewers):
So a view approaching 9000 kilometres away can be observed from Taniquetil's summit. Almost ludicrously impressive: but even beyond that is determining the exact altitude necessary for such a distance to the horizon to be visible, for which I once again call upon the services of SD.net's Planetary Parameter Calculator.
The results can be seen here. Taniquetil is a whopping 4649.45 kilometres tall, or roughly 436 times the height of the Thangorodrim. Insane you might say, but these are world-shapers we're talking about here, and it is also necessary for them to observe the world that they help to shape at all times against the treachery of Melkor: such an outpost provides both that observational necessity and personal security. The Thangorodrim were also never specified as being the tallest mountains in Arda's history.
If you recall all the way back to the description of the Twin Lamps, you'll remember that the pillars they were built upon are even taller than any future mountain: this includes Taniquetil. Melkor smashed these pillars into rubble.
Time to obtain a volume: given that they are pillars, I presume a cylinder shape is most plausible to use here.
Volume of a cylinder =
Going ahead to assume that these "pillars" were actually designed in the same fashion as columns by the Valar, thus following the same ratio style between height and diameter: in particular, I'll be going a bit low-end and choosing the Composite Order's ten diameters high structure as the basis for determining the pillar radius.
We already have a minimum height of 4649.45 km for the pillars, thus:
4649.45/10 = 464.95 km
And then halving it for a radius of 232.48 kilometres.
3.14*232,480*232,480*4,649,451 = 789,046,353,414,483,600 m^3 per pillar.
We are uncertain of the exact material used to craft these pillars, but I think continental crust is a safe bet to use here: any complaints about this, just let me know.
Given the description of the level of devastation that destroying these pillars had on the entire planet's surface, I think using the 120 J/cm^3 figure for particularly violent fragmentation is okay.
789,046,353,414,483,600*1,000,000*120 = 9.4685562409738e+25 joules or 22.63 petatons of TNT equivalent.
Continent-busting Melkor, though already I suspected as much through sheer hype: questionable showings of the Vala Verda may result in even higher showings than this, but for now, a solid placement of pure power by the Dark Foe of the World.
Do you see any bullshit here? 😕