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Geologists were able to reduce the search area for the origin of these balloons using the mineral composition of sand in the sand bags. The airforce then bombe

Geologists were able to reduce the search area for the origin of these balloons using the mineral composition of sand in the sand bags. The airforce then bombed hydrogen generating facilities nearby the suspected launch sites. Section offense and defense https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb

hinkley 4y ago
Did we have operatives taking sand samples or was that some over-exuberant librarian who got to say "I told you so" to their bosses?
- hamburglar 4y ago
  They ran it through a database at Sandia Labs. ;)
- iforgotpassword 4y ago
  That's what's so surprising to me nowadays I'd just assume they'd have googled and found a paper by some Japanese scientists, but back then someone from the US must have taken those probes across Japan.
- ok_computer 4y ago
  That's an interesting aspect to this story to me. Maybe it was truly based on intel and the geological survey was a farce to justify the facilities targeting. That wouldn't surprise me, there's a ton of lore around WWII and military activity in general. Or maybe the US government chooses to fund all areas of research, like mineral surveys, in the hopes they can call on a field of knowledge repository to use in a war machine. I'd like to believe there is a soil library that staff were doing microscope slide searches late into the night.
  - wkat4242 4y ago
    There was also a lot of deliberate misdirection to cover intelligence sources, many of which would probably persist in history to this day.
culi 4y ago
Wow that's really fascinating. I wonder what sorts of properties allow geologists to characterize sand to that level Also wonder how effective it is. Especially nowadays in such an interconnected world where products, and especially sand, could be coming from the opposite side of the globe
- alanbernstein 4y ago
  "mineral and diatom composition." Sand with a variety of both of those can look much more varied, under a microscope, than you might imagine.
  - culi 4y ago
    It being varied doesn't surprise me. What surprises me is that it doesn't vary that much within a sample. That you can parse out specific patterns or characteristics enough to figure out exactly where this sample of sand is from

hinkley 4y ago

Did we have operatives taking sand samples or was that some over-exuberant librarian who got to say "I told you so" to their bosses?

hamburglar 4y ago
They ran it through a database at Sandia Labs. ;)
iforgotpassword 4y ago
That's what's so surprising to me nowadays I'd just assume they'd have googled and found a paper by some Japanese scientists, but back then someone from the US must have taken those probes across Japan.
ok_computer 4y ago
That's an interesting aspect to this story to me. Maybe it was truly based on intel and the geological survey was a farce to justify the facilities targeting. That wouldn't surprise me, there's a ton of lore around WWII and military activity in general. Or maybe the US government chooses to fund all areas of research, like mineral surveys, in the hopes they can call on a field of knowledge repository to use in a war machine. I'd like to believe there is a soil library that staff were doing microscope slide searches late into the night.
- wkat4242 4y ago
  There was also a lot of deliberate misdirection to cover intelligence sources, many of which would probably persist in history to this day.

culi 4y ago

Wow that's really fascinating. I wonder what sorts of properties allow geologists to characterize sand to that level Also wonder how effective it is. Especially nowadays in such an interconnected world where products, and especially sand, could be coming from the opposite side of the globe

alanbernstein 4y ago
"mineral and diatom composition." Sand with a variety of both of those can look much more varied, under a microscope, than you might imagine.
- culi 4y ago
  It being varied doesn't surprise me. What surprises me is that it doesn't vary that much within a sample. That you can parse out specific patterns or characteristics enough to figure out exactly where this sample of sand is from