Unstable vortex — memorydelta

"The unstable vortex of a forming wormhole. Kawoosh."

The Unstable vortex, also known as the funnel and nicknamed "kawoosh" by Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, is the burst of unstable energy emanating from an activating Stargate.

Description

The vortex is capable of disintegrating virtually anything it touches, including living tissue. The Tok'ra funeral custom has the dead dissolved by an activating Stargate (to dispose of the body with no trace of them ever existing on a particular planet to be found by the Goa'uld). It was believed to allow travel "backwards" through a Stargate by a group in a prison planet, but this is known to be false. (SG1: "Allegiance")

The Supergate, built by the Ori, also creates a vortex, but at a much greater intensity because of the vastly greater amount of energy transferred into the Supergate. Thus far, it is one of the few things known to overwhelm the shields on an Ori warship, another being the Asgard plasma beam weapons and quantum phasers. (SG1: "The Pegasus Project", "Unending")

The Asgard auto-dialer is capable of dialing a Stargate while preventing a vortex from forming. Ascended beings also possess this ability with their mind. The Nox also possess a similar technology to the Asgard. (SG1: "The Nox", "1969", "Small Victories")

Weaponization

The unstable vortex has occasionally been weaponized given its properties of disintegration.

Linea let the prisoners on Hadante believe that there was hope on a life free from Hadante if they stood before the Stargate as the unstable energy vortex ignited, swallowing their bodies into the outburst of energy. Her victims often did this, perhaps not realizing they were sentencing themselves to oblivion and also an ultimately death as the wormhole completely consumed them, killing them as a result. SG-1 witnessed Roshure and two other prisoners do this. (SG1: "Prisoners")

After killing the Goa'uld System Lord Mat, SG-1 vaporized her body in the unstable vortex in order to ensure that she could not be resurrected in a sarcophagus. Mat had previously been killed and resurrected by her Jaffa and she posed too much of a threat to Earth and Abydos if Mat was allowed to be resurrected again once SG-1 was gone. (SG1: "The Barque of Heaven")

As a part of Major Samantha Carter's plan to free the Edoran Stargate from the layer of rock covering the event horizon, a particle accelerator was used to melt the hardened rock into a pocket of superheated gas which the unstable vortex then expanded into, creating a cavern where the Stargate was buried. This enabled Teal'c to dig most of the way to the surface, although the Stargate couldn't be dialed in again from Earth without Teal'c being vaporized himself by the unstable vortex. (SG1: "A Hundred Days")

After going into withdrawal from the effects of the Light Matrix Hologram, Lieutenant Dean Barber committed suicide by running into the unstable vortex of an activating Stargate. (SG1: "The Light")

After Jacob Carter and Selmak's death, Carter convinced Garshaw of Belote to let her vaporize their remains with an unstable vortex rather than placing them in the Arc'tus to end any temptation Ser'nàme might feel to use them to unlock her harcesis physiology. (SG1: "In Passing")

Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell and Captain Typhuss James Kira used the unstable vortex to destroy the Ancient Long-range communication device when they couldn't figure out another way to do it safely. (SG1: "Origin")

Typhuss lured an Ori warship into the unstable vortex of an activating Supergate, destroying it. (SG1: "The Pegasus Project")

When Starbase Atlantis was invaded by Michael Kenmore, the unstable vortex was used to destroy most of his Puddle Jumper, although not all as some of it was out of reach of the vortex. Dr. Radek Zelenka lowered Starbase Atlantis' Stargate shield, allowing Dr. Rodney McKay to dial the Stargate from another Puddle Jumper outside. With Michael's Jumper parked right in front of the Gate, the unstable wormhole disintegrated most of it. This broke Michael's control over the city's systems and deactivated the stun bubble keeping Atlantis' forces from reaching him. (SGA: "The Prodigal")

When Ba'al traveled back in time and changed history, Bosun was inadvertently vaporized by the unstable vortex while investigating the activating Stargate in the Achilles cargo hold. While fixing history, an alternate timeline Colonel Cameron Mitchell took the precaution of ordering Bosun to position himself on the side of the Stargate instead of standing right in front of it, preventing Bosun's death in this manner. In both timelines, the unstable vortex punched a large hole in the side of the ship above the waterline. (Stargate: Continuum)

While using the repeated activation of the Stargate to ward off an alien plant creature, MSgt. Ronald Greer vaporized one of the creature's tendrils with the unstable vortex when it got too close to himself, Chloe Armstrong and Lieutenant Matthew Scott. (SGU: "Cloverdale")

Gallery

Behind the scenes

In Stargate Infinity, the vortex does not dissolve whatever it touches.
In the original movie, when the vortex returned to the gate, it inverted into a whirlpool-like form with a small trail leading from it. Roland Emmerich nicknamed this effect "strudel", after the German word for an effect like this. This was never demonstrated in the television series or films that followed, though similar effect was seen in "A Matter of Time" due to the gravitational effects of a black hole. In Stargate physics, the term wormhole generally indicates the "tunnel" created between two active Stargates after one of them successfully dials the other, enabling faster-than-light travel in one direction.