If a kaiju really emerged

[Umbran]

Well, biggest issue is it is still presunamaly organic material vs E=MC². What kind of resilience would it take for a critter to not be punctured by a bunker buster?

Well, bunker busters aren't generally nuclear. And if you're considering nukes, you have the question of which is more damaging - the kaiju or the thing you use to kill it.

As noted previously - the kaiju present several issues in terms of physics. For example, what we think of as normal materials simply cannot take the dynamic stresses involved in supporting an active moving thing that size, much less one that's walloping around and tearing down buildings. If we have kaiju, we have materials unknown to current science, and we cannot guess what kind of stuff would be needed to penetrate its skin or otherwise damage it.

Presumably, getting it to eat a fusion bomb would be probably the most outright devastating thing we could do to it.

 

[Umbran]

Wouldn't the portal location be detected within the time it took for ground waves to reach detectors?

The kaiju themselves are only on the order of the size of buildings. The portal does not have to be much larger. On scale of the ocean, even a kaiju is small. One popping into existence in the deep ocean isn't going to cause notable seismic or tsunami effects.

The sonar nets set up to detect submarines might catch one, if it when by.

The number of places where such a thing can come ashore without being noticed is small. Presumably, folks would know about it once the first witnesses picked up their cell phones. While one walking on land may well be detectable, on the scale of seismic disturbances it is still not large - they don't take down buildings just by walking next to them, for example. I don't know if it would be at the level where it'd be detect long before human sightings of the thing.

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Presuming a kaiju was killed in some manner which left enough remains to study - a nuke would likely vaporize it - then much could be learned about how it got around our understanding of biology and structural physics. Which could allow for the creation of jaeger. Which would quickly be used by law enforcement... for our own good. Such things as riot control, enforcing orderly elections, terrorism and drug trafficking interdiction and similar effects to ensure law and order are maintained for the duration of the crisis. Installing and maintaining sensors to detect the kaiju would be awarded in no-bid, secret contracts, as would jaeger construction... for our own good. Potentially problematic organizations, such as Green Peace, the Sierra Club and PETA, would be dismantled and the leadership placed in protective custody.

Are you familiar with the Shirky Principle?

The kaiju attacks would continue. Forever.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Why would the Jaegers be against "People for the Eating of Tasty Animals"?

There is still a nice, big, US base in Japan, so that would quickly deploy to either destroy or divert the monster (IF the base commander has some scientific background or advisers concerned with environmentalism). I think this would be when the "secret" projected energy weapon the US has developed that can affect people's mood/comfort would come into play very handily. If the creature survives first contact with humanity, someone would try to tag the creature if it leaves alive, just to find a way to track it and determine its intentions.

Aftermath: whole new divisions of science would open up. Extensive research would be done. The US government would declare the Kaiju to be terrorists in order to pump in massive military resources into wiping them out (especially if that is impossible), and then they could have a war on three fronts.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If kaiju emerge, I propose feeding them temporary singularities.

If nothing else, it will be fun to watch the result as the universe tries to divide by zero...

 

[Tonguez]

If kaiju emerge, I propose feeding them temporary singularities.

If nothing else, it will be fun to watch the result as the universe tries to divide by zero...

OMG the sheer geekiness of that statement is blinding

 

[Bullgrit]

I love these kinds of discussion, (and that's why I start them). But let's not restrict it to Pacific Rim. That's only one movie plot in a genre. Don't assume there's a portal where the kaiju came from, and don't assume there will necessarily be more based on the one movie plot.

Maybe the kaiju had been sleeping/hibernating in the depths. Maybe it spontaneously generated by some conjuction of pressure and temperature and alignment of the planets. Maybe there are more down there waiting. Maybe there is/was only one.

I would think the ascending kaiju would cause a tsunami that could be detected by all the ocean sensors the world has placed around right now. Would the sensors even tell the creature's direction toward Japan? I think those scientists watching for tsunamis and such would detect it and know where its going within a short time, even before it could reach land. But they'd surely only report a tsunami approaching, not a massive monster.

As for fighting it, I highly doubt anyone would nuke the creature as anything but an absolute last resort. And probably not even then while it was in Japan. If it were to finish with Japan and move on to China, maybe China would nuke it on Chinese soil. (I think the US and Russian would also be willing to nuke it on their own land, at least as a last resort.)

I kind of doubt that other nations would strike in another nation's territory. I can't imagine, for instance, China/Russian/US/any sovereign nation giving permission to anyone else to bomb the creature while in it's area. I don't think this kind of event would "bring the world together." At least not in fighting. Perhaps in researching the origin location and future detection. And it would be a competition between nations to learn from the creature. Everyone would want to examine the creature's carcass, and it might even lead to massive war between those competing for access to it. Like, what would happen if it were brought down in one nation after having trampled through one or more others? Or if it was finally brought down in a weak or "Wild West" nation like Afganistan?

As for taking it down, I agree that modern militaries are shown as unrealistically weak in these types of movies. Sure, humans, tanks, and fighter jets would probably be useless. Probably even the biggest non-nuke bombs might not hurt it much. But the penetrative munitions, (bunker busters), would be like a bullet to a normal human.

Bullgrit

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I can't imagine, for instance, China/Russian/US/any sovereign nation giving permission to anyone else to bomb the creature while in it's area.

What makes you think another nation would wait for permission? Why would Russia, China or the US wait for permission, from say Japan, to launch a nuclear attack on the kaiju, while it is still in Tokyo?

Edit; For that matter the nations might start blaming each other for the creation of the kaiju, either by accident or deliberately as a weapon. Further, the nations involved might attempt to corral and direct the beast towards a rival and hamper the ability of the rival to do something about the situation.

 

[Umbran]

I would think the ascending kaiju would cause a tsunami that could be detected by all the ocean sensors the world has placed around right now.

Nope. As I noted before, big as they may seem on human scale, they are still small compared to the ocean. Kaiju are not big enough, and move at only modest speeds. If it were asleep inside a rock in the asteroid belt, and fell from space and crashed into the ocean, that would probably be noted. But just waking up and swimming around? No. You've got a better bet with sonar nets.

And I still say that you can't count on bunker busters. This thing must be made of what we'd consider "exotic materials" to merely stand and walk.

As for fighting it, I highly doubt anyone would nuke the creature as anything but an absolute last resort. And probably not even then while it was in Japan. If it were to finish with Japan and move on to China, maybe China would nuke it on Chinese soil. (I think the US and Russian would also be willing to nuke it on their own land, at least as a last resort.)

Assume that it is stomping around in Japan, and conventional weapons haven't made a dent (as is usual for kaiju), and the thing started stomping toward China... I am not at all convinced that China would not, in the name of saving their own people, try to turn it into a crater *before* it reached Chinese soil - and that'd probably mean getting it while it was sill on land in Japan.

Remember, the thing is a walking natural disaster. It levels entire cities. The city it is in has probably already been destroyed. Sure, the nuke would kill more people, and make the real estate unusable. But, they can work out the diplomatic niceties later - it isn't like anyone would mistake it for a prelude to war - the real target is pretty darned obvious, and its potential threat clearly demonstrated already.

And it would be a competition between nations to learn from the creature. Everyone would want to examine the creature's carcass, and it might even lead to massive war between those competing for access to it.

That assumes there is a usable carcass. If you need to nuke it, it (hopefully) vaporizes. If not, it ends up highly radioactive, if it wasn't already. You don't need, and probably wouldn't have, a war over it - the expertise (and raw number of people) needed to deal with such a thing doesn't rest in a single nation (even the US). It'd be scientific consortium time. And I don't foresee any blame being thrown around for its creation - see previous note about its material properties. Nobody on the planet could currently engineer the thing, and everyone already knows it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A kaiju may be plenty big enough to cause a tsunami-type wave under certain circumstances. Namely, it would have to be in a confined waterway and it would probably have to jump or fall into the water, instead of rising up out of the water.

In other words, it would be acting like a massive landslide into a bay, lake or river such as occasionally happens in the Pacific Northwest. There are records of such slides causing 30' tall waves that spread destruction for miles.