Are there tectonic weapons that can cause earthquakes?

Often after devastating earthquakes, conspiracy theories emerge claiming that the disaster was allegedly caused by artificial means. We checked whether there are weapons today that can provoke earthquakes.

Discussions of tectonic weapons, which are supposedly capable of causing earthquakes in a certain place at a certain time, can be found in various Media, on forums and in social networks. Vladimir Zhirinovsky spoke that “all earthquakes and related floods can be done artificially.” According to his version, “all this is being done cunningly: firstly, this happens only in Asia or Africa in order to protect the “golden billion” - residents of the USA, Canada and the European Union.” Many remembered his words after the devastating earthquake that occurred in Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023. Media wrote that Zhirinovsky’s “prophecy” came true. "Prophet-mathematician" Sidik Afghan told on the TV channel “Russia 1” that there is a “committee against humanity” in the world. By plan This committee exploded a bomb in the ground at a depth of 14 km, which caused an earthquake. It also spread on social networks theorythat the earthquake was allegedly caused by the developments of the American HAARP project.

Some natural phenomena that affect industry, the economy and the population of certain countries often give rise to talk about the artificial nature of the disaster. Mentions of tectonic weapons often come up - some hypothetical method that can artificially cause earthquakes in a certain location. The term "tectonic weapon" was invented in 1992, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Nikolaev. Nikolaev defined tectonic weapons as “the use of accumulated tectonic energy from the bowels of the earth to provoke a destructive earthquake.” Some human actions are indeed capable influence seismic activity and provoke earthquakes: mainly nuclear tests, mining and filling large reservoirs.

Nuclear explosions can cause small earthquakes and even a series of aftershocks (repeated seismic tremors of lower intensity), but this happens extremely rarely. Earthquakes from explosions are usually much weaker than the explosion itself, and the radius of seismic waves does not exceed several tens of kilometers. The energy released in a nuclear explosion is usually amounts to from 2 to 250 kilotons. For comparison: the power of a natural earthquake of medium magnitude with a magnitude of 6.5 in Afghanistan in 1998 amounted to 2000 kilotons. To artificially cause seismic tremors of such power, a bomb of several tens of thousands of kilotons would be required. By the way, explosions of bombs of this size in history happened, but they did not lead to destructive earthquakes. For example, the explosion of the largest thermonuclear bomb in history, "Tsar Bomba» capacity of 58,000 kilotons, according to available data, did not lead to significant earthquakes in the region. The largest underground thermonuclear tests, conducted by the United States in the Aleutian Islands in 1971, also did not cause earthquakes. This is despite the fact that the Aleutian Islands are a seismically active zone, and the explosion of a 5,000 kiloton bomb released an amount of energy equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 6.9. Thus, using nuclear explosions as a tectonic weapon is pointless, if only because of the low probability of achieving the desired result.

Another type of human activity that can cause earthquakes is fracking (from the English fracking - “hydraulic fracturing”). The process involves drilling wells into shale formations and injecting water, sand and chemicals under high pressure to break up the rock and release the oil. In some regions, such formation destruction Maybe provoke earthquakes due to rock displacement. The vast majority of fracking operations don't call rock movements.

Most man-made earthquakes associated with oil and gas production are caused not by fracking itself, but by recycling waste water In nature, oil is mixed with large volumes of water, which after extraction must be filtered and disposed of. This wastewater is pumped back into the ground into reservoirs at great depths, which press on existing faults in the rocks and cause earthquakes. The largest documented earthquake caused in this way was happened in Oklahoma in 2016 (magnitude 5.8). Yet only a small percentage of wastewater tanks causes seismic activity - as a rule, these are very large volume reservoirs, located in close proximity to rock faults.

Also known cases, when the filling of large surface reservoirs led to increased seismicity in the surrounding area. But it is obvious that such methods cannot be used to provoke earthquakes in “enemy” territory, since seismic activity increases relatively close to wells or reservoirs, and even then not always.

After the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in 2023, several theories conspiracy that it was a “US punitive operation” against Turkey. For example, users TikTok saw a connection between the February 6 earthquake and arrival American destroyer “with mega warheads” to the Turkish port of Golcuk on February 3. Allegedly, it was on board this ship that there was a seismic weapon - installation HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program). However, many scientists called this theory is untenable. HAARP is a radio transmitter that emits radio waves similar to a strong AM radio station. Scientists do not know the mechanisms by which AM radio waves can cause an earthquake. David Malaspina, research scientist at the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, saidthat such radio waves penetrate the ground less than 1 cm, and earthquakes occur much deeper. For example, in Turkey the earthquake occurred at a depth of approximately 10 km. In addition, it is impossible to launch waves at a certain distance and hit certain populated areas with acceptable accuracy, believes Toshi Nishimura, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boston University.

Attempts to create tectonic weapons were made by several countries in the 20th century. A joint project between the US and New Zealand militaries, called Seal, was aimed at creating a tsunami by placing multiple explosive charges on the ocean floor. Tests showedthat a chain of bombs weighing a total of 2 million kg, placed at a distance of approximately 8 km from the coast, could create a destructive wave. But this method of using a tsunami to destroy enemy cities was recognized relatively ineffective: most of the wave energy was dissipated by breaking on the continental shelf, never reaching the shore. Despite the failure of the project, in 1999 experts notedthat the creation of such weapons is theoretically possible, but further research has not been carried out since then.

In the USSR too existed two programs - “Vulcan” and “Mercury-18”, which studied “remote impact on the source of an earthquake using weak seismic fields and the transfer of explosion energy.” Within the framework of these programs, a number of successful experiments were carried out, but after the collapse of the USSR, the programs ceased to exist. Lecturer in geophysics at the University of Leeds Roger Clark notedthat the creation of such mechanisms is theoretically possible, however, given past experience, it is extremely unlikely.

Thus, some human actions, such as nuclear testing or deep disposal of wastewater, can indeed influence seismic activity and cause “artificial” earthquakes with a magnitude of up to 5–6. However, such earthquakes occur in close proximity to a landfill, well or reservoir. It is impossible to organize such activities on foreign territory, especially without being noticed by the enemy. And combined with the fact that such earthquakes are still unlikely and unpredictable, it is not yet possible to use them as a weapon.

Cover photo: WikiMedia

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Read on the topic:

1. National Geographic. How Humans Are Causing Deadly Earthquakes
2. Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: checking 8 photos and videos
3. Is it true that animals can sense earthquakes?