Tsunami Bomb
November 20, 2017 2:18 AM   Subscribe

During WWII, the United States and New Zealand conducted secret tests of a "tsunami bomb" designed to destroy coastal cities by using underwater blasts to trigger massive tidal waves.

The tests were carried out in waters around New Caledonia and Auckland during the Second World War and showed that the weapon was feasible and a series of 10 large offshore blasts could potentially create a 33-foot tsunami capable of inundating a small city.

The top secret operation, code-named "Project Seal", tested the doomsday device as a possible rival to the nuclear bomb. About 3,700 bombs were exploded during the tests, first in New Caledonia and later at Whangaparaoa Peninsula, near Auckland.

The plans came to light during research by a New Zealand author and film-maker, Ray Waru, who examined military files buried in the national archives.


Read the relevant extract from Ray Waru’s book - Secrets & Treasures: Our stories told through the objects at Archives New Zealand (Random House)

This year the previously secret restricted file from Archives New Zealand has been made available to view online - The Final Report of Project “Seal” (1950)
posted by Start with Dessert (15 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
So ... these tsunami bombs were the work of space aliens? (Much as the idea of a tsunami bomb horrifies me, some of the rest of Waru's work makes me sceptical of whatever he may have uncovered.)
posted by oheso at 3:51 AM on November 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


They're not tidal waves, they don't have anything to do with tides.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 4:45 AM on November 20, 2017 [5 favorites]


Reminds me of Geoffrey Pyke's inventions. Such a ferment of mad creativity in WWII.
posted by doctornemo at 5:03 AM on November 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Love.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 5:33 AM on November 20, 2017


Floridian nightmare fuel.
posted by Busithoth at 5:40 AM on November 20, 2017


The Russians are supposed to be working on something similar: Status-6 Ocean Multipurpose System The Tsar Bomba was pretty useless as a surface weapon, but this is something else.
posted by bouvin at 6:01 AM on November 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


They're not tidal waves, they don't have anything to do with tides.

Nonetheless, people call them that. They probably got named so because the water coming in and receding is reminiscent of tides.
posted by thelonius at 6:31 AM on November 20, 2017 [4 favorites]


We really need to stop doing stuff that will awaken the kaiju
posted by Hermione Granger at 6:41 AM on November 20, 2017 [11 favorites]


They're not tidal waves, they don't have anything to do with tides.

Well, yes. But it isn't as if calling them tsunami is particularly more accurate. Tsunami means "harbor wave".

And, as a bonus, most Westerners can say "tidal wave" without mangling the pronunciation. Your average English speaker has a really hard time using the tsu- sound at the beginning of a word and tends to slur it into su- instead.

On topic, while the use of bombs to directly cause tidal waves would be impractical, there are several ocean shelves that could be collapsed with a few nukes and that might well start a tidal wave. It'd be Bond villain level pointless, any nation that could do it could use the nukes directly to more focused effect, but its theoretically possible.
posted by sotonohito at 7:30 AM on November 20, 2017 [4 favorites]


They're not tidal waves, they don't have anything to do with tides.

Next up, the pedantry bomb. It says "WELL, ACTUALLY..." so loud that everyone's eyes reflexively roll back in their heads at light speed, killing them instantly.
posted by klanawa at 11:57 AM on November 20, 2017 [20 favorites]


We have much better mechanisms of tracking ICBMs than we do submarine fleets, it seems. If I'm being sufficiently Bond-villain-esque you could also mine a shelf years in advance and remotely detonate, in a way you couldn't (as easily) sneak nukes into a major city (also, nukes aren't meant to be exploded at ground level).
posted by effugas at 4:33 PM on November 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's a shame Mythbusters has finished. Seems like it would be a perfect fit since they'd already done an earthquake machine.

Want a new project asavage? Plenty of material in the report - and it involves explosives.
posted by Start with Dessert at 9:19 PM on November 20, 2017


If New Zealand was involved, there will be number 8 wire in there somewhere.
/KIWIREF

Oh, and Peter Jackson blew up a sheep once.
posted by arzakh at 1:52 AM on November 21, 2017


Oh, and Peter Jackson blew up a sheep once

I don't know what this sentence means, but I'm very glad the word "up" is in there.
posted by Optamystic at 8:28 AM on November 21, 2017


In an effort to clarify, here's the scene referred to. The guy with the chainsaw is Sir Peter.
posted by arzakh at 2:52 AM on November 23, 2017


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