http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3648794.stm

- Damn. If only we liked to go after those with WMD.

Scary country.

Yea I read that too.

An expert can perhaps enlighten us how much conventional explosives are required to create a crater visible from space...

Though the shroom cloud is not a big deal, a firework factory exploded about 5 miles from my house a month ago, that left a shroom cloud too :eek:

EDIT, clarified.

You could perhaps push your government to invade them Halo. Get to work mate.


Ibudin

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has said in the past Mr Bush would not have invaded Iraq if Saddam Hussein had had nuclear weapons capable of use. The rare statement of truth from the mouth of evil himself.

Yeah, the vast number of things that can create a mushroom cloud leaves nuclear as only a REMOTE possiblity - since every other sign of a nuclear detonation were absent (distinct seismic and radio signatures).

I know what it was. John Kerry's Democratic Nomination. Fitting it would blow in a Communist nation.

Thats effin hilarious Osgil.

Before we went into Iraq, the US military detonated the MOAB or Massive Ordinance Air Burst. Some called it the "Mother Of All Bombs". It was designed to be rolled out the back of a C-130 or C-17 (as its only payload since it wieghs like 21000 lbs) and has the yield of a tactical nuclear weapon (like maybe 5 kilotons). Granted that may not "seem like alot", but thats what was designed to be tossed out the back of a plane and guided by GPS while it floats to its detonation altitude via parachutes. Contrary to what some may beleive, and to the fact that its test was pretty much a big scare tactic, the MOAB was not designed to kill people. It was designed as demolition ordinance to build rapid expeditionary airfields. Clear the rubble away and lay some AM-2 matting down and you have a nice, quick and clean airstrip. As for killing enemy forces with a MOAB, the military can do that for alot less money with less dramatic weaponry.

Anyway, the point is if you truck in and pile alot more conventional, bulky demolition explosives in a mountainside that are not designed with the ease of portability or delivery by warplane or missle, than you can make one heck of a KABOOM.

The MASS ORDINANCE AIR BOMB is most certainly design to kill people. It pops about 10 feet above the ground and immediatly burns off all the oxygen in the blast radius with super heated gases and big boom stuff..=) This includes if it detonated above bunkers. You get to be fried from the inside out and it eats up all the oxygen in its path. Sounds fun.

MOAB is a mean bugger, the steroid book worm spawn of the BLU-82 "Daisycutter".

If you applied that much explosive into a ground based, you would get a nice hole in the ground. so the new North Korea public answer of 'mountain clearing' is plausible if you put that much explosive in one spot on the ground.

now i'm not sure how much it would take, but to put out a mushroom cloud like that would mean an obsence amount was set off above ground. some of the reports said that North Korea was clearing some mountain to make way for a new hydroelectic plant. and i'm not a demo expert, but i get the feeling that what happened was not a explosion that went according to plan.

Im pretty sure with the technology they have today if they captured that explosion with some sort of photography they could easily tell from that if it was atomic or not just from the color spectrum.

Ibudin

I believe Ibudin is correct. If it's in the spectrum, a nuclear blast will create alot of it. There's no hiding one of these detonations, no matter how small. We can even detect (though not immediately) one detonated underground by the various gases released later on through cracks and faults in the area.

Is it wrong that the MOAB makes me wet?

Probably, since you're a medic?

I imagine it's much easier to operate on dead people. What's the worst that could happen? "Sorry Mr. Smith, but you'll never be able to use your right leg again...oh wait!"