A Solar Storm Likely Detonated Dozens of Sea Mines During the Vietnam War

Think Gizmodo is off by a couple of zeroes, and I'm not even referring to the "50 decades" part but the number of detonations. That dozens number is surely in hundreds, if not thousands.

The report (PDF) describes my lower bound clearly, but is otherwise full of fascinating operational details and related horrors. The higher bound is reported by retired chief petty officer Michael Gonzales Jr, who was a mineman. Having worked the reseeding operation, he puts the count at 4,000. This is generally corroborated by declassified memo 2217-73, which states this in the timeline, "4 Aug - Solar storms deplete DST fields."

Using two types of planes, the Navy planted 11,711 sea mines in the area over eight months, nearly the entire majority of them being the Mk-52 (magnetic) type weighing at 1,000 lbs a piece. Each plane could carry four bombs at a time and not all could be capped so they were an annoying aerodynamic drag to pilots. Some early mines detonated prematurely due to a configuration flaw, and the arming mechanisms were adjusted accordingly.

On August 4, nearly fifty mines were visually observed detonating spontaneously (half the explosions were seen, other half were seen as craters.) Elsewhere, "numerous" underwater shocks were felt by destroyers. So that puts it a terrifying notch over "dozens." Within weeks, sympathetic detonations and self-destruct mechanisms were ruled out.

While I find the cause of the detonations - even if it was just dozens - eerily fascinating, more importantly I find the whole idea of tossing 11,000 sea mines somewhere harrowing, and obviously dangerous under even the most controlled conditions.

No one is documented to have died during the solar storm detonations, but there were other losses due to the mining operation. Two U.S. aircraft crashed, an A-7E Corsair II (pilot missing), and a Sikorsky SH-3 helicopter (pilots and crew survived due to training, rear admiral Robinson and two aides drowned), rare flag officer to die in combat until 9/11. Five U.S. warships struck misplaced mines; four took light damage but USS Warrington (DD-843) had to be scrapped due to a high repair cost of $4M. The mine was estimated at $720. But if the cost estimates were accurate, it took about $6,250 to lay a single one ($37k today).

Mining waters around Vietnam was apparently in contravention of the Geneva accord, but they used the 1972 Easter Offensive as a "justification for a retaliatory move," which explained why they didn't lay sea mines the first seven years of the war.

I just happened to be camping on Ossipee hill in southern Maine on August 4, 1972 (I was 15). It was the most intense aurora I've ever seen. It covered the entire sky with incredible movement and brightness. My friends and I just laid on our backs in the moss for the entire night and watched the show.

When I was a student, my university always boasted that it had helped research a way to detonate these mines and so helped the North win the war and I have always assumed so. Who could have thought that solar wind had helped!

Relevant links and snippets (google translated):

- http://www.vusta.vn/vi/news/print/Guong-hoat-dong-KHCN/To-GK...

- http://vinamarine.gov.vn/Index.aspx?page=detail&id=2908

> Explosion-control heads for torpedoes and magnetic bombs were dissected to draw an electronic map, explain the operation principle and measure the parameters. Sensors ranging from a long rod type (MK-52) and a thin film type (MK-42) are also investigated and analyzed.

> The GK1 also produced a large Helmholtz coil to produce a precise control and measurement magnetic field that was intended to imitate the magnetic field generated by the ship or car in order to affect the sensor of the control. explosive. Thanks to such basic research, the GK1 team not only understands the mechanisms that cause the torpedo and magnetic bombs to explode, but also to know how to generate large, small, slow-moving magnetic pulses. Active control of magnetic bombs and explosive magnetic explosives, ie, breaking them.

> - Removed 67 mines, mines (including 8 MK52 strategic mines in direct disassembly with units, dozens of bombs from school, bombs explode slowly, explode immediately).

> - Detonation (by many technological solutions) 2.157 mines, mines.

> Buried for nearly 50 decades, these now declassified documents

Damn... kudos to their archivist.

Classified because if you know which storm triggers the mines, and which does not, you know much of a change you can get away with. You know how much you need to do to hide your ships from them.

> Operation Pocket Money

giggle snort