The Science of Conspiracy Theories

Tsunami bomb

Tsunami bomb

This is involved in the conspiracy theory that the 2004 Tsunami disaster was not natural but the result of a tsunami bomb, that the U.S. along with India had used such a bomb to cause the destruction that affected a lot of Muslims in Indonesia.

What is a tsunami bomb? Apparently, there was an effort during World War II to consider using the atomic bomb to create a tectonic weapon that could cause a destructive tsunami. Such a weapon could have been used to destroy German dams, resulting in destruction of their industrial capacity. Although this never happened because the war ended too soon, the idea was not forgotten and supposedly there were tests, in collaboration with the University of Auckland and Britain, conducted off the coast of Auckland and New Caledonia around the period of 1944 to 1945. This was Project Seal. However, these tests didn't involve a nuclear device. However, the conspiracy theory is that it was a nuclear weapon in the case of the 2004 tsunami.

Could a nuclear weapon cause a tsunami? The answer is yes, it certainly could. The question now is was such a weapon used to cause the 2004 tsunami. The idea here is that the U.S. (with George W. Bush's orders) and Israel aided India in an experiment to exterminate Muslims.

A 9.1 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused the December 26, 2004 tsunami. Could this have been the result of a nuclear device? Yes, it's possible, but the cause of the tsunami has been determined to be the result of the Indian Plate being subducted by the Burma Plate, a typical tectonic event in this very active tectonic region. This earthquake was predictable because of a 2002 Foreshock near Sumatra.

A 9.1 magnitude earthquake is one of the most powerful ever detected. The energy released was calculated to be 1.1 times 10 to the 17 power joules, or 28 megatons of TNT. The actual work done was equivalent to 550 million times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. This would have required a bomb about the size of the 50-megaton bomb that Russia once detonated. The U.S. didn't have a bomb that powerful. So, there is no way that it could have been done with a nuclear weapon. It would have required placing several bombs at strategic locations under many thousands of feet of water and then have them explode simultaneously. That's not going to happen.

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