Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to 20 feet?

Hell of a difference, Lee
nick hoffman — (archived)

A conventional bomb needs to have a hard casing to penetrate something solid, but it doesn't matter if the contents squish and flow like toothpaste. The basal charge will detonate a preset time after impact, or upon crushing force. Either way, it goes bang, and all that's needed is for the detonator to be close to part of the squished mess of the penetrator and its contents.

For a nuclear device, it has to be INTACT to a very high degree of precision to allow the thermonuclear detonation to work with proper symmetry. If the casing is deformed, or the contents jarred by impact, the compression blast (conventional explosives) will lose symmetry and simply spray the thermonuclear materials around. No nuclear detonation will result (although the small crater will be very "dirty")

If NASA couldn't land an impact probe on Mars due to the ground being frozen hard as concrete, then it's likely that DoD can't burrow more than a few tens of metres into concrete or rock. Soft sand or deep soft earth is a different matter, but most bunkers aren't topped with more than a thin capping of soft stuff!

Once we're talking Megatons, there is almost no difference between a detonation 50m above or 50m below ground. Both make a crater bigger than that depth/height and throw enormous amounts of irradiated soi and rock into the air - this, plus the spent bomb materials are the fallout.

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