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

[J.A. Terranson]

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

> At 12:01 AM 9/12/04 -0500, J.A. Terranson wrote:
> >"No big deal"?  Who are they kidding?
>
> JAT, any large explosion will create a mushroom cloud.  Its the
> blast wave reflecting off the ground that lifts the thing, plus the
> buoyancy of the hot gasses.

Yes, I understand all this - mushroom cloud != nuclear explosion.


> If it *were* a nuke, it would be easy to detect --from Vera
> gamma-ray satellites staring at the earth to optical sensors
> (there's a characteristic nonlinear time-course of optical emissions)
> to fallout monitors, ground and plane based.

Which _I_ do not have access to ;-)

> Time will tell,

Exactly.

> and it certainly could have been a nuke (they have
> the SNMs), but if you do it, you talk about it, much like
> the Indi/Pakis did.

If I were in Jong's slippers, I would not discuss it - I would just do it,
and let everyone draw their own [obvious] conclusion.  Remember, his
pattern has been to only discuss things (even when already obvious to
everyone else) only when _he_ felt like it.

>  And you can't hide a surface burst, or
> even a large belowground test

This conflicts somewhat with a previously expressed opinion (Shaddack?).
I was under the impression that underground tests, unless performed with
very tiny nukes at very great depth, produced visible clouds from the
blast waves.

> --and an underground test
> that vents to the atmosphere doesn't make such a big cloud.
>
> Nukepunk


-- 
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
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  "There aught to be limits to freedom!"    George Bush
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Which one scares you more?