Bill Pragnell wrote:

> Ger <No.### [at] ThankYou> wrote:
>> You keep referring to the mountain as a volcano but it isn't even though
>> Niven describes it as one.
> He does describe it as conical, though, which would almost always be a
> volcano if it were formed naturally.

My point is that volcanos can not exist on/in the ring. You need magma and
tectonic activity for a volcano to form and both are not available on the
ring

> 
>> The one thing you could/should compare it to is
>> a bullet hole in sheet metal.
> Good point. However, it wouldn't be quite like a bullet hole because the
> asteroid in question would probably have been a dense cloud of plasma by
> the time it hit the ring floor (the characters observe a foamy impact
> buffer covering the underside before they land). It would certainly have
> looked like a volcano; the glowing remains of the asteroid would have
> sprayed forth from the tip of mountain even as it formed. Not that the
> locals would have had a chance to observe the cataclysm - the shockwave
> (depending on the damping properties of scrith, of course ;) ) would
> probably throw the topsoil miles into the air for millions of miles
> around. If scrith was like metal, the whole Ring would probably vibrate
> like a bell for millennia, shaking everything to oblivion on its
> surface... although it wouldn't be - the builders would surely foresee
> such events and want their wonder-material to be as powerful a damper as
> it is strong.
> 
> Thinking about it though... bullets deform quite drastically when they
> strike metal - perhaps it wouldn't be so different. What we need here is a
> high-speed film of a ball-bearing striking a sheet of toffee. Anybody? :)
> 
> Bill

If you can compare the ring material to anything known now it would, in my
mind, be something like high-strength aluminum. Somewhat soft and it can be
stretched quit a bit. Were it something like carbon fibre then the mountain
would not have formed because this does not deform but it shatters.

-- 
Ger

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