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.
By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney 01 Jan 2013
The Big One
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.
“Presumably if the atomic bomb had not worked as well as it did, we might have been tsunami-ing people,” said Mr Waru.Mr Waru said the initial testing was positive but the project was eventually shelved in early 1945, though New Zealand authorities continued to produce reports on the experiments into the 1950s. Experts concluded that single explosions were not powerful enough and a successful tsunami bomb would require about 2 million kilograms of explosive arrayed in a line about five miles from shore.
“It was absolutely astonishing. First that anyone would come up with the idea of developing a weapon of mass destruction based on a tsunami … and also that New Zealand seems to have successfully developed it to the degree that it might have worked.” The project was launched in June 1944 after a US naval officer, E A Gibson, noticed that blasting operations to clear coral reefs around Pacific islands sometimes produced a large wave, raising the possibility of creating a “tsunami bomb”.
“If you put it in a James Bond movie it would be viewed as fantasy but it was a real thing,” he said. I only came across it because they were still vetting the report, so there it was sitting on somebody’s desk [in the archives].”
Forty years after the joint testing, New Zealand faced a dramatic breakdown in its security ties with the US after it banned the entry of nuclear-armed ships from entering its territory during the 1980s. The dispute led to the US downgrading its relationship with New Zealand from an “ally” to a “friend”.
伦敦「每日邮报」（Daily Mail） 网路版指出，作家及电影製片Ray Waru在纽西兰国家档桉局的军方档桉中，发现这项秘密行动的细节。
美纽二国为发展大规模杀伤性武器，从1944年6月起在纽西兰奥克兰（Auckland）及新克里多尼亚岛（New Caledonia）附近海域秘密引爆水下炸弹，以製造巨大的海啸。
根据档桉中所述，实验前后共引爆3700枚炸弹，结果显示海啸炸弹的构想确实可行。
实验结果显示，在外海10次连续的强力爆炸可能製造33英尺（约10公尺）高的海啸，对沿岸城市造成巨大破坏。
虽然实验结果证明海啸炸弹实际可行，但是此项计画在1945年初搁置。因为纽西兰认为“自身为一个独立的岛国”，其切身的利益已被威胁无遗。
突发奇想： - 某天当中日的纠缠给搞到“不可收拾”时，日本那小岛国会面临那“人性灭绝”的毁灭吗？
再者，美国当年1944年（早于1945年8月广岛长崎的核爆）的试验是否本来就是为对付二战时那混蛋小日本的？
