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[denito]

Will this work?

Side view of waterfall going over cliff, meeting magma tunnel coming out halfway down.

WW
##W
##W
MMMO
##..O
##

W = water, # = cliff face, O = obsidian.

The idea is to hit falling magma with falling water so that it continuously produces obsidian blocks that pile up at the base of the waterfall.  Feasible?

[Neoskel]

This is what will happen:

WW
##W
##W
MMOW
##OW
##..W

[Demonic Spoon]

Indeed the flaw in your plan is not realizing that water and magma make natureal obsidian walls, not blocks, the magma under the waterfall will solidify blocking the rest.

[denito]

What if the magma were two tiles high, instead of just one?  With an overhanging cliff?

WW
##W
##W
MMOW<-- Obsidian forming here has magma tile below it
MMMW
#M..W<-- maybe also need overhang to keep cliff wall away

[Lord Dakoth]

What if the magma were two tiles high, instead of just one?  With an overhanging cliff?

WW
##W
##W
MMOW<-- Obsidian forming here has magma tile below it
MMMW
#M..W<-- maybe also need overhang to keep cliff wall away

WW
##W
##W
MMOW
MMOW
#MOW

...Yeah. Pretty much, the obsidian walls will eventually block the magma source, no matter how tall it is.

Maybe you could try experimenting with water pressure, and shooting the water at the magma somehow?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

W#
W#  <---- pressurized water
W#
W###
WWW    W
####             W  <----water-chunk projectiles
#                             W
#                                        W
#                                                         W                 M
#                                                                   W       M
#                                                                             O
                                                falling obsidian --->     O
                                                                         #======# <----- retractable bridge
#                                                                       #           #
                                                                         #           #
                                                                         #     O    ||  <----- dwarf enters through
                            magmaproof floor bars     ---->   #+++++++#            door, clears obsidian
                                   empties into chasm            #             #
                                   or recycles magma             #    MMM  #######
                                                                         #MMMMMMMMMMMM  -----> reuse magma
                                                                         ##############

It just occurred to me how bloody ridiculous this whole plan is. The "genius" part is that the retractable bridge drops the obsidian into a chamber, where a dwarf mines it out. The obsidian is then ferried away to a stockpile...

Remember to turn off the fluid flow as long as there is a dwarf inside. The floor grates will allow excess magma to be reused. However, water that hits the magma under the floor grates will harden the magma, and royally clog up your "septic tank." Just turn off the water before you open the bridge, and you can save yourself

[2xMachina]

I thought water doesn't "shoot"? They just teleport to a tile which is empty?

[Caz]

I thought water doesn't "shoot"? They just teleport to a tile which is empty?

There's some kind of water pressure, but it's kind of buggy.

Unrelated, but does sending water through a U-bend flood your whole fortress still?

[Shiv]

A U-bend?  If you mean does water still flow diagonally, then yes. 


When water meets magma it forms obsidian walls, as someone else has said.  These act like other walls and become attached to the cliff face, unaffected by gravity and damming your lava flow in one go.  No way around it unfortunately.  I think if you tier your magma flow like in the second example you'll just get an obsidian staircase. 

Also, if the magma is constantly flowing out, wouldn't it just turn into steam?  I'd think the magma flow rate would be too slow to maintain proper proportions to the water.

[Osmosis Jones]

The U bend is like in your toilet, where it first goes down before it can go up. There used to be a bug whereby a U-bend would result in an endless flood of water bubbling up, but thats been fixed. Hence, as long as you keep the water pressure in mind, you won't flood your fortress.

[NFossil]

I thought natural walls don't disintegrate when collapsed?

[RandomNumberGenerator]

I thought natural walls don't disintegrate when collapsed?

They don't.

As far as the idea in question, you could try making a waterfall and shooting a magma cannon at it, something like:
              ~~~~~~~~
++++++~+++++++
+           ~              +
+           ~              +
MMM      ~              +
+   MM   ~              +
+      MM~              +
+         MO              +
+           O              +
+           O              +

[denito]

OK I begin to see the problem.  As long as the magma gets generated in the same spot it will eventually pile up too high no matter what pattern it's in.

I was actually going to do this over a chasm, so, there's no floor, but then I wouldn't have any way to catch the obsidian.  I was going to figure out that detail later.  "OK Urist, here's the plan:  you're going to take this pick here and when you see that lava turn to obsidian, you're going to leap into the chasm and land on the falling obsidian and mine it *as fast as you can*..."  Just kidding.  Actually I was going to try using a retractable bridge to catch them, but I guess that would probably deconstruct the bridge, so...

But who says an obsidian waterfall  isn't worth having around for the heck of it, even if you can't mine it?

[elwessweettea]

Infinite waterfall of 'A section of the cavern has collapsed'? Fun times!