"Forest Fire" responsible for a 2.5mi *mushroom cloud*?

[J.A. Terranson]

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004, Thomas Shaddack wrote:

> On Sun, 12 Sep 2004, J.A. Terranson wrote:
>
> > "No big deal"?  Who are they kidding?
>
> A 2-mile wide cloud is WAY too big to be caused by a single explosion,
> unless REALLY big.

Exactly.  And there aren't many things *that* big.

> The forest fire claim sounds more plausible in this
> regard. An existing cloud could be used for masking, though.

Wait a minute: since when does a forest fire create explosions?  Or have
enough ground force to push up a mushroom cloud?

> But a surface or atmospheric blast would produce a flash plowing through
> the entire EM spectrum; from long-wave radio to microwaves to hard gamma.
> That's something the satellites Up There can't miss even through a smoke
> cloud - at least if they are still operational or replaced by newer ones.

Agreed.  Except that _I_ do not have access to those sattelites, so I
don't know what it is they saw (or didn't see).

> (Remember the strong flashes of gamma bursts, originally discovered by
> satellites observing the nuclear test ban:
> <http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast19sep97_2.htm>.) Also a
> disruption of this kind would be perceivable in long range, possibly by
> quite many people.

And, lo, a *lot* of people noticed it.

> An underground blast, if not screwed up, wouldn't produce a cloud at all.

That I didn't know.


> However, both surface and underground blast would have a peculiar seismic
> signature. There is a network of both nonproliferation-surveillance and
> plain old scientific seismic stations all over the world. Something like
> that couldn't stay hidden for too long. Remember the day the the Kursk
> submarine became famous; the recording of the double signature, the
> explosion and shortly later following implosion, appeared online in couple
> days (or maybe even hours?) after the Event.

Yes, I do remember that.  I also remember everyone denying it at first.

> It's difficult to imagine a
> true nuclear blast would stay unreported for more than few days.

Agreed - we can only wait and see.  However, I do *not* expect that the
USG would want this out if it *is* a nuclear test - Shrub is facing a PR
nightmare if it is, since he is the one who pushed them into the nuclear
corner.

> Even if
> it would really be a nuke test and the politicians would want to be quiet
> about it, there are too many subjects outside of the direct US political
> control to either report the measurements or the eventual pressure to not
> report them.
>
> According to CNN, there was also a strong blast reported in the area of a
> missile base. We don't know how strong the blast was, and if it couldn't
> be just a "conventional" explosion, caused by eg. a combination of a
> forest fire and an ammo depot.

That of course brings us full circle: how many fuels can produce a blast
which results in a 2+ mile mushroom?  That's a *lot* of explosive force.

> There is also a possibility the "senior officials with access to
> intelligence" were injecting media with false information. Remember there
> are many subjects with different agendas here and a little psyops here and
> there is quite common.
>
> Let's not jump on the conclusions yet. Wait 2-3 days, optionally watch the
> traffic in conferences of geologists taking care of the seismic activity
> worldwide and in the vicinity of the area of interest. It's Saturday and
> many people who could know the answers are away from their instruments;
> let's wait what they will find on their screens on Monday morning.

Hey look here Shaddack: you're ruining a perfectly good conspiracy theory
here!  I'll have none of this well reasoned CRAP in *my* conspiracy
theory!  :-)

I, like many other, will be looking at this as it develops...  You may be
right, but, really, a *forest fire*????

-- 
Yours,

J.A. Terranson
sysadmin at mfn.org
0xBD4A95BF

  "...justice is a duty towards those whom you love and those whom you do
  not.  And people's rights will not be harmed if the opponent speaks out
  about them."      Osama Bin Laden
	- - -

  "There aught to be limits to freedom!"    George Bush
	- - -

Which one scares you more?