Dealing with volcano near the base

[Luminiel]

So I just discovered a volcano(gold volcano to be specific) very near to my base and thankfully, it's still dormant for 50+ cycles.

Before the volcano shows some activity, what should I do to contain it early on? I don't want to roast my base with crazy temperatures when it erupts.

[dorianmode]

Surrounding it with two layers of insulated tile in igneous rock (or any rock, really) will render it safe if you just want to wall it off.

For future referece, if you avoid completely mining out the volcanoes you can check them without causing them to become active. This is generally the best practice.

Edit: to be absolutely rigorous, igneous and mafic rock have higher melting points, which might be useful if you're planning to keep it walled off indefinitely. Insulated tiles have very low conductivity, but the gold is at 2626C, which will melt any insulated tile eventually. Even ceramic. The conductivity is low enough that this can be disregarded, though - especially if you wall it so there isn't much room for large amounts of molten metal to build up.

[Luminiel]

Originally posted by dorianmode:

Surrounding it with two layers of insulated tile in igneous rock (or any rock, really) will render it safe if you just want to wall it off.

For future referece, if you avoid completely mining out the volcanoes you can check them without causing them to become active. This is generally the best practice.

Edit: to be absolutely rigorous, igneous and mafic rock have higher melting points, which might be useful if you're planning to keep it walled off indefinitely. Insulated tiles have very low conductivity, but the gold is at 2626C, which will melt any insulated tile eventually. Even ceramic. The conductivity is low enough that this can be disregarded, though - especially if you wall it so there isn't much room for large amounts of molten metal to build up.

So that's the case for walling it off to keep the heat from seeping into the colony. But what if I want to take advantage of it? Does it require some kind of extraordinary cooling setup to make use of its molten metal(well it spews molten gold right)?

[dorianmode]

Originally posted by Ugly Bastard:

So that's the case for walling it off to keep the heat from seeping into the colony. But what if I want to take advantage of it? Does it require some kind of extraordinary cooling setup to make use of its molten metal(well it spews molten gold right)?

Molten gold is super-hot, but has a pretty low heat capacity, so it's only moderately terrifying :)

The general idea is to remove the heat from the metal, and put it elsewhere. You could vent it into space, or whatever you like. The most common (and probably simplest) is to put it through a steam turbine.

Spoilers, if you want a pretty simple solution someone else came up with - this one is pretty blunt, but effective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg0DX873u0c

You can build all kinds of solutions of varying complexity - it depends how much heat you want to remove, and how much you're worried about power consumption. I only suggest that one because it's pretty much the no-frills starting point. Might be a good introduction to heat deletion through steam turbines, if you're not doing it already.

Small note, though: I might add some automation to that build to stop dupes picking up the metal before it's cooled below 100C, though - leaving it open doesn't allow you that kind of control.

[Hedning]

How to deal with it depends on what stage of the game you are in. If you have steam turbines then of course it is very easy. If you are still at early game do not fear. The gold volcano is very useful so you will still want to tap it as soon as you can. You can always tap one as soon as you find it. See if you can't find some polluted water or ice. 30°C polluted water is found in the slime biome and ice is found in the ice biome. Just dump it on the neutronium tiles to keep it cool. Polluted water is a bit worse not just because it is warmer to begin with, but also because it can spawn sand tiles. I don't recommend using your starting water for this since you may need it for your base.

Some of the water may turn to steam, so best is if you can insulate it from your base but not from the surrounding biome. Let the steam cool down on the cavern walls. Once your water gets close to 100°C electrolyze it and replace it.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by dorianmode:

Insulated tiles have very low conductivity, but the gold is at 2626C, which will melt any insulated tile eventually. Even ceramic.

Obsidian's melting point is 2726.85C so it can safely contain it.

[dorianmode]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Obsidian's melting point is 2726.85C so it can safely contain it.

Thanks - I always forget about obsidian for some reason.