[Long Cut]

Unfortunately, that's how a torpedo works, nowadays. It explodes beneath the target, creating an "air bubble" large enough so that the target "falls in", resulting in the breaking of the target's back due to the length and sudden loss of support in the center.

That's in addition to the ones that punch in a hole or two. There's a number of different designs, and they do not need to be nuclear.

Believe me, there are diesel-powered submarines which could easily sink a carrier, if undetected for long enough.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Given what you said, I offer a scenerio: An unknown object pops off the ocean bottom and appears to be rising towards the carrier from below, and is picked up by sonar. The decision is made to launch torpedoes from an escort sub to destroy what ever it is. Unfortunately, all this action takes place under the carrier.

[Fitzcarraldo]

[solitas]

That's interesting. I hadn't known that about today's torpedoes.

However, the initial posting was with regard to a nuclear device and, I didn't think about it until after my posting: I wonder if just the initial impulse from the explosion ('way before the bubbles got there to upset bouyancy) would kill the hull - water being a good low-freq coupling mechanism and the acceleration/impulse being so high and well distributed?