Hmm. I would think it would be more in our interests to NOT let them save face, but cause them to look weak to their people so as to improve the chances of a popular uprising that would remove the mullahs.
5.0 earthquakes happen in fault zones. No one is going to build a DUMB in such a fault zone.
>Towards the end if it was hit by another missle, I've seen others ask why they would do that?
They wouldn't. That was my point LB.
>I think that plane was gliding in for a controlled crash landing.
It was a gigantic 200mph Molotov at that point.
There was a 6.3 from the nuke test itself. But the little earthquakes from those tunnels collapsing were in the 2 to 3 range. I did the math a while ago to work out how much total energy a Rod-from-God could have based on current heavy launchers and compared that to earthquake energies. It came out to about 2 terajoules. And that looked like around the right order or magnitude for the amount of energy the radiated away from that little quake. So it's plausible. But a 5.0 is 100 times larger. No way that's a RoG. It would have to be a nuke or (crazy thought…) an actual natural earthquake.
Sauce for magnitudes:
https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2017/10/31/north-koreas-underground-nuclear-test-site-collapses-killing-200/
This sounds more like a comm system than an earthquake machine.
That weird earthquake with a 17sec period did happen on that day. But it was off the cost of Africa in an area with known subsea volcanic activity.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/unusual-seismic-waves-shook-the-world-on-nov-11-and-scientists-arent-sure-why_2727009.html
The two questions I've always had about that concept are:
how do they overcome the extreme ground pressure at depth so that molten rock can be forced into those cracks? You're basically pushing a huge hydraulic cylinder against the liquid. The forward force would need to match pressure (rock is 2.7 dimes the density of water) multiplied by the area of the bore. If you want make a tunnel 1000ft deep and 30ft in dia, these numbers get big fast.
And how do cool this molten rock fast enough? Rock is a poor thermal conductor. And as seem in the above ground pressure calc, removing the supporting structure before the lining is solid is not an option. It would take many hours, maybe days, to cool
You don't sound like you're speculating.