Could Vibranium be destroyed?

With Captain America Civil war released, Lets answer a burning question!

Could Vibranium be destroyed?

The answer is yes, if you follow the comics. Vibranium has been destroyed several times in the comics according to Wikipedia here are some of them:

1.In The Avengers #215–216, the Molecule Man used his total control over matter to disintegrate the shield, along with Thor's hammer, Iron Man's armor, and the Silver Surfer's board.

2.During the 1984-1985 Secret Wars limited series, the shield is partially destroyed by Doctor Doom, who has stolen the power of the godlike being known as the Beyonder.

3. During the 1991 miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos shatters the shield with a blow of his fist while in combat with Captain America.

4.In Avengers Vol. 3 #63 (March 2003), an enraged Thor, wielding the Odin force, dents the shield. 

5.In Thor Vol. 2 #73 (January 2004) an enraged King Thor with Rune Magic, destroyed the shield, killing Steve Rogers with it.

6.During the 2011 miniseries Fear Itself, the Serpent, the Asgardian god of fear and brother to Odin, breaks it in half with his bare hands.

But wait, wasn't the answer just too easy? What if we actually had a metal that resembles Vibranium or has its properties. What if Vibranium existed in our universe with the same properties?

If Vibranium could act like an immovable body (On its own), so what does every immovable object need? An Unstoppable force! Just like the joker said! Even though this is a famous paradox, the Minute Physics video kind of gives a partial answer answer (Click here to see).

I'll spare you the trouble An Immovable object = An Unstoppable Force (a.k.a non acceleratable!)

 Vibranium is able to withstand all these blows due to the fact that it possess the ability to absorb all surrounding kinetic energy. 

This kinetic energy is then stored into the bonds that make it essentially make it tougher with every hit. There are limits to this but are not specified in the Marvel Universe.

If you are unfamiliar with how molecules are made here is a short explanation, the bond formed between any two atoms is through either the exchange of electrons (which most metals do) a.k.a "Ionic Bonds" or by sharing electrons (which most non metals do) a.k.a "Covalent Bonds".

Here is where it gets weird, in our world when any kind of energy is supplied to atomic/molecular bonds they break off when they reach a certain "Enthalpies" or Energy Levels. So in real life you would have to either supply enough energy to break the bonds or have the bonds dissipate energy in other ways like sound and heat. Which exactly happens in the Avengers when Thor hits Cap's shield leveling down an entire forest (Although this is much much much more bigger if an actual Thor hammer hit and actual Vibranium Shield, I am talking planetary scale destruction!). 

A back of the envelope calculation says that the shields temperature, depending upon the blow can rise from nothing to Absolute HOT, just like absolute zero but much much more hotter! Like 1.41 X 10^32 kelvin, at which point the laws of physics would cease to exist. (Check out Vsauce's video Here!). 

So to anyone holding this shield in hopes of saving yourself, be warned you might be vapourized!

Thanks for Reading!