General Question

Aster's avatar

Does the US have technology to create earthquakes?

Asked by Aster (20023points) March 20th, 2011

If the US can create earthquakes, what would be a reason or reasons they’d do so? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP1c0PWaR4Y&feature=player_embedded

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38 Answers

12Oaks's avatar

The US has been blamed for having the ability to create tsunamis and hurricanes, and also control the direction they go and the level of devistation they create. Can’t see why the US can’t also create earthquakes. Or, at least be accused of creating them.

ragingloli's avatar

While I would not consider them to be beyond using such technology, I doubt they actually have it.
Why can this not be in social…

DrBill's avatar

I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you, sorry.

Lightlyseared's avatar

A number of carefully placed thermonuclear warheads could probably get the job done.

WasCy's avatar

I knew this would be coming back to HAARP.

The link is nonsense. No matter what “bouncing off the ionosphere” is done, the plates of the Earth’s crust are not so delicately balanced that they’ll react like fine crystal in the presence of an opera singer trying to crack the glass. Moreover, they’re not so finely mapped that anyone could predictably cause effect “Y” with beam “X”. Bouncing radio waves off the ionosphere is not as precise, obviously, as a laser beam – or a cruise missile.

Finally, what would the US “oligarchs” stand to gain by causing these kinds of disruptions?

If you want to worry about something real, worry about the Social Security “Trust Fund”. That’s a black hole, and it’s real.

Aster's avatar

@WasCy I’m not worried; I don’t know if it’s true so I asked. Trust me: I have plenty to worry about already unrelated to earthquakes.

JilltheTooth's avatar

Ability? Probably yes, appropriately placed massive explosions on fault lines might do it. Clandestinely, and anywhere they feel like it in a controlled manner? Highly unlikely.

rooeytoo's avatar

omg are those bloody yanks at it again!

Probably anyone with enough explosives could do it.

But I simply can’t take this stuff seriously.

Qingu's avatar

Yes, we do. A nuclear weapon detonated underground can generate seismic activity that is basically identical to that of an earthquake. It can also trigger other earthquakes (for the same reason that big earthquakes trigger aftershocks.)

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/165/3899/1255.abstract
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/25/north-korea-hiroshima-nuclear-test

Brian1946's avatar

@Qingu

Is there any info on the magnitude of a nuclear-weapon generated quake?

poisonedantidote's avatar

I have never been too good with numbers, but I would say no.

A 9.0 earthquake puts out the same energy as 476 megatons of TNT. The nuke that was dropped on hiroshima in WW2 output 2 megatons. Thats 476 megatons of output energy, not the energy you would need to cause one. To cause one you would no doubt need a lot more energy. The biggest nukes to date are the tsar nukes, with 57 megatons of energy. In other words, a 9.0 like they had in Japan would put out the same energy as about 8 of these things.

We can shake the ground a bit, the tremmor of a tsar bomb would be felt for miles, but i seriously doubt that we have the capacity to push one of the earth’s plates under another and cause a 9.0 quake.

Qingu's avatar

@Brian1946, North Korea generated a 4.5 mag quake with just a Hiroshima-sized nuke, 10–20 kilotons.

Most strategic nuclear weapons are like a hundred times more powerful than that.

But, remember the Richter scale is logarithmic (6 is a hundred times more powerful than 4). I would seriously doubt that any underground nuke tests have ever been responsible for any major quake.

Qingu's avatar

@poisonedantidote, Little Boy (the nuke on Hiroshima) was not 2 megatons, it was 13–18 kilotons.

1 megaton = 1,000 kilotons.

Most strategic nukes are 1 megaton. The biggest bomb ever exploded, the Tsar bomb, was 50 megatons.

poisonedantidote's avatar

@Qingu Just googled that, and you are right, .02 megatons / 20 kilotons. I was recalling the number from memory from a documentary I watched. Either I recalled wrong or they had bad data. oh well, I guess that makes a quake even more impressive.

Qingu's avatar

Also, though only tangentally related to the topic, I would just like to note that it is unfuckingbelievable that we tested so many nuclear weapons and people are still exploding these things underground to win international dick-waving matches.

Also, as bad as quakes can be, at least they don’t release radioactive fallout all over the world.

filmfann's avatar

I watched the Jesse Ventura show about HAARP, and I am unconvinced that it is an earthquake weapon, but I am sure it is dangerous. If they are causing weather change, or tremors, I doubt if they are doing it maliciously.

Nullo's avatar

Sorta. One can do a lot with a well-placed nuke. Why the federal government (the only part of the country with access to the things) would do such a thing depends entirely on what you think about it.
I feel that it is good and reasonable to give the benefit of the doubt. It has been demonstrated that legislators tend to expand the influence of the federal government (at the expense of the state governments) when the opportunity arises for them to create the appropriate legislation. I do not see this extending into callously murdering thousands of wholly unrelated people.

kevbo's avatar

Any gas drilling operation has the ability to create earthquakes through fracking. Here is an article that describes five ‘conventional’ methods. The fracking method is what is suspected to have caused recent earthquakes in Arkansas.

That being said, there’s enough out there for me to believe that we (and maybe Russia) have this capability (likely at the disposal of more shadowy interests). See here (a statement from 1997) and here (a Kucinich-sponsored bill that died in committee). Regarding weather, also see here.

There was a spike in the number of smaller (5.0 and below) quakes in 2008 (even accounting for better quake detection methods) and a comparatively higher number of strong quakes (5.1 and above) in the most recent decade than in previous decades.

The U.S. happened to be running Haiti disaster relief simulation exercises out of Miami the day before the Haiti quake. Indonesia (the tsunami) and Haiti are regarded as suspicious as well because of the Clinton/Bush cleanup show.

The most common reasons associated with the belief you suggest are a) disaster capitalism, and b) new world order-style imperialism vis a vis world banking interests. Kind of like the Death Star and “fear” keeping the local systems in line. It’s also a way to somewhat covertly impose political will just like any other black ops type endeavor.

I’ve read Fulford for a couple of years now, and I would say he takes some truth drives it into fantasy. There are definitely better sources.

zendielacson's avatar

I think the US have no reasons to make a technology for making earthquakes,,

Nullo's avatar

@kevbo The trouble with that angle is that it was “fear of this battle station” that would “keep the local systems in line” – an announced threat. Setting off earthquakes when nobody’s looking and then not assigning blame or responsibility for them is entirely pointless.

ragingloli's avatar

@hiphiphopflipflapflop
Only if your goal is establishing global dominance via open terror.
Not if your goal is to wreck competing foreign economies to give an edge to your own.

hiphiphopflipflapflop's avatar

The second goal is nonsensical given the extent to which we have become interlinked. We have devolved necessary economic functions to these “competitors” (just walk into any American “Big Box” store and browse) and we rely on their hoarding of dollars to turn around and finance our own government debt.

kevbo's avatar

@Nullo, way to deconstruct my off-the-cuff, illustrative analogy. Good detective work. It disproves everything.

SquirrelEStuff's avatar

I wouldnt doubt that the US could create earthquakes, but I think a more likely culprit would be the moon or a planet.
I dont know the accuracy of this video, but it was uploaded to youtube on March 9 and predicted that between March 11–15, the Earth and Sun would be aligned with Comet Elenin, and could be responsible for a major earthquake. Her evidence was that last year on Feb. 27, the day the Chile earthquake hit, the earth, sun, and comet were aligned and that it caused a magnetic pull on the earth responsible for earthquakes.
I dont know how accurate the video is, all I know is that youtube says it was uploaded two days before the Japan earthquake. See for yourself.

Qingu's avatar

What you described is nonsense. The alignment of the earth, sun, and comet could not cause a magnetic pull. That is not how magnetism works.

Tidal forces can cause geological activity. But not remotely like that.

Here’s the thing: we actually know how the physics involved works. So unless the person on a random Youtube video about causing earthquakes is actually a physicist, you should probably ignore them.

Qingu's avatar

Also, there is nothing to explain. We know exactly why this earthquake happened. You don’t need to appeal to extraterrestrial events to explain it because there is already an explanation.

That explanation may not satisfy people who want to believe there are deeper, magical reasons for random disasters, but nature doesn’t work to satisfy human emotional needs.

SquirrelEStuff's avatar

@Qingu

It may be nonsense. Im just an electrician. I have no explanation for the video. The only question I ask is, if this video was posted on March 9, two days before the earthquake, did other people have foreknowledge of an event such as what happened on March 11 and is it just coincidence or a complete crock that the alignment happened at the same time during last years earthquake in Chile?

Qingu's avatar

Of course it’s a complete crock. That is not how physics works. As an electrician, you know that electromagnetism and gravity obey inverse square laws, right?

mattbrowne's avatar

Ken Follett speculates about this in his book ‘Hammer of Eden’.

My answer would be: extremely unlikely.

Even if we asked 300 million people to jump from a chair at the same time, no earthquake would be created.

ragingloli's avatar

the planet would be split in two :P

SquirrelEStuff's avatar

@Qingu
Im not really sure how that applies to this though. I really dont have much on an interest in astrophysics, although maybe this conversation will spark an interest. I just find it crazy that the video was posted 2 days before it happened, even if it is pure coincidence.

Qingu's avatar

After Googling “elenin” and “comet elenin” and whatnot, I wouldn’t take that video at it’s word to begin with.

Every single search result is some evangelical/cult website.

And the dates in the video are not mentioned in the Wiki article about the comet.

SquirrelEStuff's avatar

@Qingu

I agree. 5–6 minutes into the video, the women says Jesus told her something will happen March 22–23 too. I did a big “Ohhhhh boyyyyy.”
I saw the affiliation to cults and what not. I’ll take the same approach I take to religious organizations. I’ll stay away from the organized part, but I’ll still always wonder, “what if they are right?”
If something big happens in the next day or two, maybe, just maybe, ill drink the juice.
just playin…..

I still cant get over the fact that the video was uploaded before the earthquake.
Just curious, did you watch the video?

Qingu's avatar

@chris6137, earthquakes happen because of shifts in our planet’s crust.

Now, in order for another body in the solar system to affect what happens in Earth’s crust, it has to be able to exert some kind of force on our planet.

There are two relevant forces. The first is the electromagnetic forces. This is the force that makes magnets do the things they do; it’s also the force that makes tables and chairs feel solid (the electrons in the table repel the electrons in your hand, so it feels solid). If a comet or meteorite smashed into Earth, that would definitely affect Earth’s crust. But the electromagnetic force doesn’t work that well over long distances, and it doesn’t work for large objects that don’t have a net charge (like Earth or a comet).

The second force is gravity. Everything with mass has gravity. Bigger things have more gravity. Gravity creates tidal forces. Jupiter’s huge gravity, for example, is tearing its moon Io inside out through tidal forces. But, Jupiter is a giant planet, and Io is very, very close to it. Gravity rapidly drops off in force as you increase the distance (the inverse square law). Also, comets have very little mass and so barely exert any gravitational force in the first place.

So, there is no physical way that the comet could have anything to do with what goes on inside Earth’s crust. Except perhaps “Jesus magic”

I skimmed through the video but I can’t watch with sound (I’m at work).

incendiary_dan's avatar

Weather manipulation is one thing, earthquakes are entirely unlikely to be the result of intentional technology.

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