Why has the SGC's iris survived the "wormhole effect"?

[ECN]

We know that anything thrown into the "splashing" wormhole effect is immediately destroyed...

So why isn't the SGC's iris destroyed when a wormhole forms? I mean, it's not made of naquada, which apparently is the only thing that can stand up to the effects of a forming wormhole.

It's been said that burying a gate will prevent it from being used, but wouldn't the "splashing" effect (or "sudsing effect", if you prefer) simply destroy anything blocking the gate? It happened once when the gate got buried on a planet Jack ended up trapped on. The SGC tried dialing the planet, and the buried gate ended up opening up a pit in front of itself, by way of the "splash". The earth and debris directly in front of it was destroyed.

Same once in Antarctica (might have been an alternate timeline, not sure) the ice covering the gate there was destroyed, leaving a big circular tunnel leading to the gate.

So why isn't the iris at the SGC destroyed when a wormhole forms? Haven't they shown it being in place already many times when some bad guys have tried to gate in?

Any takers? Help?

[Daedalus-304]

I think it has something to do with the iris being so close to the wormhole, that the vortex cannot form.

[ECN]

I think it has something to do with the iris being so close to the wormhole, that the vortex cannot form.

But it DOES form. You can see the light behind the iris, and you can hear...things...hitting the iris...things that were coming thru the gate.

[jenks]

But it DOES form. You can see the light behind the iris, and you can hear...things...hitting the iris...things that were coming thru the gate.

The wormhole forms, the 'kawoosh' doesn't.

[mike123]

The SGC wouldn't be destroyed, just the iris. The Stargate in Antartica was in a cavern already. The 'kawoosh' effect couldn't have created a cave quite as large as the one that Jack and Sam were in. Before the SGC could send things through to the planet that Jack got stuck on, they had to melt the hardened naquadah that had covered the gate.

[morjana]

We know that anything thrown into the "splashing" wormhole effect is immediately destroyed...

So why isn't the SGC's iris destroyed when a wormhole forms? I mean, it's not made of naquada, which apparently is the only thing that can stand up to the effects of a forming wormhole.

Sam explained why WAY back in season one, episode two, 'The Enemy Within':

DANIEL: So this iris is gonna hold right?

CARTER: Pure titanium. Less than three micrometers from the event
horizon. It won't even allow matter to fully reintegrate.

The vortex, then, must be formed of some time of matter (energy, etc.) that the iris prevents from forming, however the event horizon is established, which is the blue puddle you see.

[rosco51773]

I can't remember the episode it was in but Carter mentioned something about the gate not being able to establish a wormhole at all if you place something such as coverstones just behind the event horizon of the stargate (like in the original movie when the gate was buried) . The airforce welded an iris in this position on the second gate before locking it up at area 51, disabling it permantly until the iris was later removed. That theory doesn't really work though if you bury the gate without coverstones. Because we've all seen that a gate buried without coverstones will only create a hole when the wormhole first connects. The iris is placed incredibly close to the event horizon something like 3 thousandths of an inch (don't check my numbers I'm sure they are wrong). The iris doesn't allow enough space for any matter to reconstruct itself coming through the gate so jaffa or goa'uld bombs just disintigrate on the back of the iris. So long story short the iris can stop anything EXCEPT the unstable vortex of an incoming wormhole. If any of this is wrong I'd love to know.

[lacka1986]

I always wondered that about the buried stargates. I understand the iris is mad to withstand the kawoosh, but what about normal rock and dirt?

[Inferno D]

The titanium couldn't block the particles sokar was shooting at it.

[sae1969]

From what I understand, burying a gate means to make sure that some physical object is inside the naquadah ring. If there is object inside the ring then a wormhole can't form.

As for the iris, it is placed just outside the event horizon. This allows the formation of the wormhole but prevents solid matter from materializing. SGC will get notice of an incoming wormhole, open the iris to allow the karoosh to form without destroying the iris and then reclosing it to block incoming materials. This would also apply to a force field like that in Atlantis. I don't think anything can withstand a kawoosh, not even Ori shields.

[stargater1990]

We know that anything thrown into the "splashing" wormhole effect is immediately destroyed...

So why isn't the SGC's iris destroyed when a wormhole forms? I mean, it's not made of naquada, which apparently is the only thing that can stand up to the effects of a forming wormhole.

It's been said that burying a gate will prevent it from being used, but wouldn't the "splashing" effect (or "sudsing effect", if you prefer) simply destroy anything blocking the gate? It happened once when the gate got buried on a planet Jack ended up trapped on. The SGC tried dialing the planet, and the buried gate ended up opening up a pit in front of itself, by way of the "splash". The earth and debris directly in front of it was destroyed.

Same once in Antarctica (might have been an alternate timeline, not sure) the ice covering the gate there was destroyed, leaving a big circular tunnel leading to the gate.

So why isn't the iris at the SGC destroyed when a wormhole forms? Haven't they shown it being in place already many times when some bad guys have tried to gate in?

Any takers? Help?

the logical answer: it shouldnt survive. nothing should be able to survive the unstabel vortex that destroyes everything when the wormhole forms.

the way it is but shouldnt be: it survives just cus.

[The6thRace]

If it helps, then think of it this way. The Iris doesn't work, and never has. It would be destroyed every single time, except an Ascended being saw all the good humans would do in the universe and decided to help them by infusing their iris with special properties that would protect it from the kawoosh.

[Chevron_nine]

As everyone else said, the iris is so close to the gate that the kawoosh doesn't form.

If the gate is buried and is completely filled with dirt it will not connect at all, no kawoosh, no wormhole, nothing.

In the case of "100 days", the gate was connected and had an established wormhole when it was buried. Basically the molten rock went through the gate and it hardened and formed an iris on that gate. There was no kawoosh at first. They had to use a particle accelerator to melt a tiny hole the rock. Now that there was a tiny hole when they dialed the gate the kawoosh was able to form and make a cavern.

[NKDietrich]

It's just one of those things you have to accept. Sorry. You just have to believe that for whatever reason, an object extremely close to but not blocking the event horizon will prevent it from "flushing sideways".

[ColbyWolf]

here's my thoughts:

1) The 'Kawhoosh' is not a requirement to opening a wormhole -- we've seen several races do it with just a little hand wave and a shimmery effect. (The Nox come to mind. I think Cassie did it in 1969... I know there have been others.)

2) The impression I've gotten, though it may be erroneous, is that if something is intersecting the plane where the wormhole would form, the wormhole would not in fact, form. (Though a bit of thought on the matter makes this a bit confusing: What if the plant life around a gate had grown up and a twig was poking though? That's potentially a long way to fly to do a bit of gardening, if that happened...) But if you think of the wormhole's event horizon as a bubble, it makes sense that having any interruption in it's surface would cause the 'bubble to burst'... But if this theory is correct, it makes you wonder how many 'buried gates' might just be because of some over enthusiastic hedges, or because someone decided the ring made a good place to hang one's laundry.


3) The iris is, as said, suspended a tiiiiny distance from the location of the eventually formed event horizon. So close that matter does not reform properly--yet things that are much smaller--particles of energy and radio waves--can pass through without issue. (I wonder if any Goa'uld has gotten the bright idea to use some sort of poison gas sort of attack...? There must be some way to get it to work.. even with the wormhole apparently not admitting atmospheric particles... (that is, poisonous atmosphere or water doesn't leak into the gate room when they open up..)

4) Though I suppose none of this really explains why the 'kawhoosh' doesn't eat the iris... except to say that perhaps it doesn't absorb and destroy ALL matter? Think about it: I strongly doubt that the very air itself is vaporized (... or whatever the right word would be) by the kawhoosh effect. So, perhaps, and this is a bit of a stretch, perhaps the titanium is capable of blocking the kawhoosh while not being absorbed by it and titanium was chosen after trial and error to discover what COULD withstand it. or, as said, perhaps it simply stops the kawhoosh from forming at all..

I dunno. I had a point when I started, but I think I lost it. What an awesome way to end a first post -_-