He wants something which would crack the planet's crust; you're not going to get that with widely dispersed efficient-life-killing thermonuclear strikes (leaving aside the obvious question 'what do you do about the vents and spores etc'). To do that, you need a lot of energy, whether it's a kinetic projectile or a fireball & shockwave. A Project Orion kinetic strike would probably be more efficient than a pile of gigaton nukes since each explosion can be smaller and more energy extracted than it.
you're not going to get that with widely dispersed efficient-life-killing thermonuclear strikes (leaving aside the obvious question 'what do you do about the vents and spores etc').
Where on earth did widely dispersed efficient-life-killing thermonuclear strikes come into it? Multi was considering a bomb (or cluster thereof) at a single location. The closest to 'dispersion' was when you brought Orion into it, with it's chain of bombs spread out over the launch distance.
...A Project Orion kinetic strike would probably be more efficient than a pile of gigat
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/2012da14.html
http://rt.com/news/paint-asteroid-earth-nasa-767/
Seems like a good opportunity to bring up existential risks. And A friendly reminder that NASA is in fact pretty damned important.
Thoughts?