“The passive sensors are where the vibrations from the explosions are detected, not where the explosives are placed. Duh! ......”
I have to ask. If anyone is doing explosions up there would they not forbid any hikers from entering? Or is that just me? Then again there are some tree huggers who would go out anyway, I guess.
The article said "Each blast will shake the ground as much as a magnitude-2 earthquake". Wikipedia says that a magnitude 2 earthquake has the energy equal to 15 kilograms of TNT, so I doubt they have to clear out the entire mountain, just the area around the detonations.