Tsunami Bombs/Project Seal Earthquake "Control" method?

I was reading about Project Seal when a question came to mind about prevention tactics used in avalanche control. There are plenty of controlled avalanches set off every year around the globe to prevent larger ones from happening and causing more destruction.

Project Seal:

Project Seal ( also known as the Tsunami bomb) was a programme by the New Zealand military to develop a weapon that could create destructive tsunamis. This weapon was tested in Whangaparaoa off the coast of Auckland between 1944-1945. The experiments were conducted by Professor Thomas Leech. British and US defence chiefs were eager to see it developed and it was considered as important as the atomic bomb. It was expected to cause massive damage to coastal cities; it could have even been used with a nuclear charge

Avalanche Control:

Active techniques reduce the risk of an avalanche occurring by promoting the stabilization and settlement of the snow pack through three forms of intervention: disrupting weak layers in the snow pack, increasing the uniformity of the snow pack, and lessening the amount of snow available in snow pack for entrainment in an avalanche; this can be accomplished either by triggering smaller less hazardous avalanches, or by directly influencing the structure of the layering of the snow pack. Active avalanche control can be broadly classified into either mechanical or explosive methods. Mechanical methods are typically used in either remote terrain, smaller terrain, or less hazardous terrain; while explosive methods are used in accessible large high hazard terrain, or terrain with industrial, commercial recreational, urbanized, and transportation usage.

Project Seal was initially used as a "scare tactic" that failed to produce results. My question is what, if any, methods have we used similar to avalanche control to control the possibility of a HUGE earthquake that would present a large tsunami as well? Are there any programs set up to have controlled quakes that would cause a larger fault to settle and release the energy in a controlled manner so as not to cause too much damage to the surrounding area and in turn release the energy buildup that could cause a larger quake? My reason for adding in the Tsunami part is because the initial project was to create a tsunami which would be naturally created by quakes or large landslides, so if we could control the energy release of larger faults then we could essentially control the occurrence of a large tsunami.

Just wondering if this has ever been explored in the quake world or the tsunami world as a viable means for preventing both/either? Anyone here know or have links to anything I can read about on the subject?

I also read this article while doing some "research" on the subject.

US Experts talk about future disaster prevention

In the article:

Li said scientists are now studying how such a strong tsunami would take place, and Japan is going to drill deep into the seabed to the earthquake center to find out the cause of the earthquake, with support from the United States and other countries.

Now my question on this piece is that if we have the means to drill down to check out causes AFTER the fact, why can't we drill into the zones PRIOR to the incident and set off small controlled quakes that would "calm" the zone and prevent huge disasters like this.

If we can't accurately predict these things then what is stopping us from lessening the blow? I do not know what tech is currently available for this type of operation but the fact that we can already drill to the depths that they are able to check and are doing so specifically to find the cause suggests to me that we could significantly decrease the chances of a major quake and ensuing tsunami by going with preventative methods.

I have searched, granted I am at work so it is a bit half a$$ed, but can find no information on any programs for prevention of these types of disasters. All I come up with is warning system articles and information.

I would think that this line of reasoning would be sound and the Project Seal type of operation could easily be converted into such a "control" type of scenario for this.

Or am I just completely wrong and would this cause an all out breakdown of nature and the earth resulting in complete annihilation of all life on earth?

I just found this pdf of the unclassified project. Very interesting reading. They were actually able to create pretty large tsunami type waves. Near the end of the file there are pictures. The most intriguing to me is the one labeled Plate 10A where they set off numerous directional charges and from what the picture sequence shows it produces a tsunami type wave in their test environment.

Project Seal PDF

Plate 10A



Objective of Project is very interesting being that they wanted to simulate a naturally occurring tidal wave:



The results they attained are pretty astounding to me....30-40 ft waves up to five miles off shore:



And finally a couple about the conclusions:





This project and the work is really fascinating to me. Are there any ongoing projects like this that may overlap with what I am asking about as far as this type of control for possible earthquake prevention from detonation undersea, or anything still ongoing for creating tsunami's?

Originally posted by Vasa Croe
...so if we could control the energy release of larger faults then we could essentially control the occurrence of a large tsunami.

I never heard of Project Seal, so S&F for teaching me something new.

The energy release question is what I believe is sort of on trial at the moment in Italy.

The thing is, in some situations, smaller tremors (like the ones in Italy) can release energy and thus eliminate the risk of a ‘big one’, but in other cases they are only a warning of worse things to come.

Source

So if seismologists cannot uniformly agree on this question of energy release, there seems to be much more work to be done in this area.

reply to post by aboutface


Yeah...this is really a very interesting project to me. I do wonder what, if any, progress has been made since this project in the means of undersea tech that can either cause or prevent these disasters.

Thanks for the link!

reply to post by Vasa Croe

Well although I'm only speculating, we know the military complex spares no effort to develop new hideous ways to cause destruction, I believe the geology community to be a non-speculative one. They tend to resist paradym changes in their theories as they themselves say. I cannot even picture the two groups working together. Quite the contrary, I'll go out on a limb and say that the destroyers do something then call in the scientists to measure the effects only. Well, this is a conspiracy site and I am indeed speculating.

That said, however, there are some impressive tsunami computer models out there, unlinked to weaponry.