I always wondered how even a direct hit with a H-bomb could destroy the Chayenne Mountain fortress. How is that possible? It is under a mountain, the doors are massive. I can not see how even the TSAR Bomba could destroy that. Do you have mathematical answers?
... good questions! I am not a scientist, and I think this is one of those subjects that is still kepr under wraps. (not wanting to advertise exactly how to bust a bunker). I think a clue comes from the fact that cheyene and the underground launch facilities are all suspended on springs! It has to do with the 'shockwave'. All that energy has to go somewhere. Dense rock may turn out to be a better than foreseen transmitter of energy. In Cheyene they put a lot of effort into 'bolting' the surface of the hollowed out cavern area. They were attempting to 'harden' that inner layer of granite. My suspicion is that the shockwave travels thru the rock imploding into the open hollowed out area of the caverns. The short version would be that any large opening inside the mountain would cave-in as all of that energy moved through. It is a physics problem. I remember reading that half-way thru the Cheyenne construction they realized that although the granite mountain was very 'hard'- it was also very 'brittle'. oops! AS you can see; when we start to look at the specifics, we can see that there is a lot of information relevant to how and where to build more recent bunkers- such as Raven Rock.
... you also have to remember that in the 1980's accuracy of ICBM's increased dramatically. So it would be possible to select a precise 'sweet-spot' on the mountain. Also 'penetrator' weapons which punch deeply into soil or loose rock were developed. A surprising amount of the energy in a multi-megaton surface burst is used up in the sandy soil beneath it. Of couse we also need to remember that high value targets like Cheyenne were allocated several warheads. What the internal structures and infra=structure might be able to survive, the soft, squishy humans may not!
I always wondered how even a direct hit with a H-bomb could destroy the Chayenne Mountain fortress. How is that possible? It is under a mountain, the doors are massive.
ReplyDeleteI can not see how even the TSAR Bomba could destroy that. Do you have mathematical answers?
... good questions! I am not a scientist, and I think this is one of those subjects that is still kepr under wraps. (not wanting to advertise exactly how to bust a bunker). I think a clue comes from the fact that cheyene and the underground launch facilities are all suspended on springs! It has to do with the 'shockwave'. All that energy has to go somewhere. Dense rock may turn out to be a better than foreseen transmitter of energy. In Cheyene they put a lot of effort into 'bolting' the surface of the hollowed out cavern area. They were attempting to 'harden' that inner layer of granite. My suspicion is that the shockwave travels thru the rock imploding into the open hollowed out area of the caverns. The short version would be that any large opening inside the mountain would cave-in as all of that energy moved through. It is a physics problem. I remember reading that half-way thru the Cheyenne construction they realized that although the granite mountain was very 'hard'- it was also very 'brittle'. oops! AS you can see; when we start to look at the specifics, we can see that there is a lot of information relevant to how and where to build more recent bunkers- such as Raven Rock.
ReplyDelete... you also have to remember that in the 1980's accuracy of ICBM's increased dramatically. So it would be possible to select a precise 'sweet-spot' on the mountain. Also 'penetrator' weapons which punch deeply into soil or loose rock were developed. A surprising amount of the energy in a multi-megaton surface burst is used up in the sandy soil beneath it. Of couse we also need to remember that high value targets like Cheyenne were allocated several warheads. What the internal structures and infra=structure might be able to survive, the soft, squishy humans may not!
ReplyDelete