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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 2342128" data-attributes="member: 9254">Here's some things to consider:size does not directly control gravity.  Gravity is a function of the planet's total mass and distance to the center of the planet.  You can have huge fluctuations in planetary size without impacting the force of gravity at the surface.  Similarly, planets of a fixed size can have widely varying gravities.  In other words, you can fairly easily adjust the planet's size from 1/2 - 3x the size of Earth with no impact on gravity.  Or, you can have an earth-sized object with 2/3 - 10x Earth gravity.  Volcanic explosions are in line with the planet's core, so they could adjust the planet's orbit but not it's tilt or rotational speed. Adjusting tilt or rotation would require a force that does not line up with the planet's core. Regardless, adjusting planetary tilt/orbit would require absolutely staggering amounts of force.  Truly cosmic amounts of force  The earth is an object massing 5.9742 × 10^24 kilograms so to get any measurable change in the planet's orbit you would need something on the order of 1 x 10^10 tons of plutonium or about 2.5 x 10^5 tons of antimatter.   Detonations this big would destroy the planet, blow off the atmosphere, and boil the continental crusts.</blockquote>