Replies

Here is an interesting case. On March 2, 2002, the U.S. dropped thermobaric (fuel air) bombs on Afghan caves which used explosives and pressure. The next day there was a 7.2 magnitude quake in the same area. The following day there was a report that the two could be related. If the earth were viewed as a tire and the thermobaric fuel air bombs acted as a tire pump into the caves, they may indeed have caused the quake. Something to think about in upcoming world wars.

March 2, 2002 - U.S. Drops Thermobaric Bomb on Afghan Caves

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/011222/1/268w9.html
The US military is about to use a powerful new weapon in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, a "thermobaric" bomb which can suck oxygen out of the cavernous hideouts where Osama bin Laden and remnants of his al-Qaeda terror network may be holed up.
The laser-guided weapons contain an explosive that can penetrate deep into caves, as the hunt for bin Laden enters a new, more perilous stage, top Pentagon officials said Friday. Officials said 10 of the newly designed bombs were being shipped to Afghanistan after a successful test last week in Nevada.
Each thermobaric bomb -- also called fuel-air explosives -- contains two explosive devices and a highly flammable chemical that sends a deadly shock wave through enclosed spaces such as caves and tunnels without collapsing them. The weapons consist of a container of fuel and two explosive charges. When the first charge detonates, the fuel is dispersed. A second charge then detonates the billowing cloud of fuel.
Experts say such bombs tend to be far more powerful than conventional high explosives, and are more likely to kill or injure people hiding in caves, bunkers and similar shelters because they can suck the air out of such places.
Earlier versions of thermobaric bombs were used in Vietnam by the United States and in Chechnya by Russia. The new version, called the BLU-1186, was developed specifically for use in the war against terrorism, officials here said. [End]

March 4, 2002 - Aid Workers Report More Than 100 Killed in Afghan Earthquake

SAMANGAN, Afghanistan (AP) - Aid workers flying in by helicopter reported 100 people dead Monday in a remote northeast Afghan village crushed in a powerful earthquake that shook a wide area of Central and South Asia, a U.N. official said. Eight others were reported dead elsewhere.
The 7.2 magnitude quake crushed 100 houses in the village of Dakhli-Ezeu, trapping victims inside, Khaled Mansour, a U.N. World Food Program spokesman, said from Islamabad, the capital of neighboring Pakistan.
"The village is under a cliff, and huge rocks fell down from the cliff, basically flattening the houses," Mansour said. [Click on above link for the rest of it]

March 5, 2002 - Sunday quake might have been caused by bombing

MOSCOW, Mar 05, 2002 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- The earthquake that shook Central and South Asia last Sunday might have been triggered by super-modern weapons intensively used by the U.S. aviation in the seismically dangerous areas of Afghanistan, a source in a Moscow geo-physical research center has told Itar-Tass on condition of anonymity.
He said the supposition was confirmed by the unusually strong and lengthy tremors (up to one minute) that originated in the Hindu Kush Mountains and spread onto Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India. Even old residents of Kabul do not remember an earthquake similar to the Sunday tremor that exceeded 6 points on the Richter scale.
"A possible reason for the tremor was the American's large-scale use of powerful bombs, including the ones that are capable of starting avalanches in the mountains," the expert said. [Click on above link for the rest of it]

I doubt that the two are related. I will admit that I do not know the force released by the fuel air explosives, but they have been likened to small, tactical nuclear bombs. So assume the two types of bombs are similar.

If that is the case, why then in over 50 years of testing, no similar earthquakes have been set off by nuclear tests? The tests themselves have a strong seismic signature, but I do not recall tests being blamed for a 7.2 magnitude quake.

Furthermore, I do not know the hypocentral depth of the Afghan quake, but my guess would be on the order of 15 to 25 kilometers (which is fairly shallow, as quakes go). The force released by the fuel air explosive dissipates exponentially with respect to the distance traveled and the medium through which it is propagated.

For the same reason there is NO SUCH THING as "earthquake weather," it is highly unlikely fuel-air bombs "caused" the quake. The last part of the post is just Russian propoganda.

Now let me play Devil's advocate. I suppose it is possible you had a fault just sitting a "hair trigger," all stressed up and ready to rumble, the bombs could be the "straw that broke the camel's back," if you will pardon my non-pc pun.

In the same manner as the "simultaneous jumping humans" problem earlier in the post, we could work out the forces, but it is not really worth the effort.