6 ms·

Slightly off topic but when I read the headline, I assumed "large crater" would be much more large than you see in the picture. The article reports "7 meters (2

Slightly off topic but when I read the headline, I assumed "large crater" would be much more large than you see in the picture. The article reports "7 meters (23 feet) in diameter and 1 meter (3 feet) deep." For a bomb that doesn't seem that "large." Luckily no one was hurt or nearby when it went off.

bradgessler 2y ago
Agreed, seems very very small for 5000lb of explosives. Guessing it didn't reach its full yield given that its been buried under ground for decades.
- lupusreal 2y ago
  If the crater is only 1 meter deep then the bomb was likely more shallow than that (although some of the ejected dirt will fall back into the crater). So much of the bomb's energy went into the atmosphere.
- Oarch 2y ago
  Article says 500lb.
- aidenn0 2y ago
  ~270lbs of explosives in a US 500lb bomb.
sholladay 2y ago
It would have done considerably more damage if it had gone off when and where it was intended. The runway is designed to have enormous, heavy planes takeoff and land on it routinely, it undoubtedly absorbed a lot of the bomb’s energy. Not to mention the earth underneath it.
- bell-cot 2y ago
  > It would have done... Real WWII historians could probably determine the date on which the bomb was dropped, its intended target, etc., etc. But with the condition that most of Japan was in, later in WWII - I'm thinking that "gone off where & when intended" would probably have had little effect. Most of the country was burned-out rubble.
0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago
Did historical bombs typically make big explosions? Reading some numbers from the war, it seemed like the strategy was more to dump enormous volume of ordinance and hope to get lucky hitting something vital.
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  That strategy was not because the bombs weren't very destructive, but because they just could not be placed accurately. So they had to drop a lot of bombs and hope a few of them hit the strategically important targets.
- skriticos2 2y ago
  Yep. The US did drop around 160,800 tons of conventional bombs on Japan during WWII, thought that's still relatively tame compared to the 623,000 tons they drop on Germany. Though the two nukes more than made up for it, I guess. Bomb findings during construction is nothing especially rare in these countries.
  - Scoundreller 2y ago
    So like, is “no unexploded ordinances detected” a checkbox/service for those “call before you dig” organizations in those places?
    - ornornor 2y ago
      In some parts of France, you can’t dig without getting a specialized surveyor inspection and certificate it’s safe to dig this deep in that place first.
    - crote 2y ago
      Absolutely. In my country it is mandatory to submit an UXO report as part of getting the building permit for nontrivial stuff. Most of the time this is boring office work (Was there a strategic target nearby during WWII? Are there any records of bombing happening here? Have there been earthworks in the last 70 years significant enough to rule out anything still remaining?) and you get a report noting that there's no risk expected, but sometimes you have to call in the cavalry and go searching with ground-penetrating radar. It's just part of doing business, really. Same story with archaeological remains, chemical contamination, or threatened animal species.
aidenn0 2y ago
The US 500lb bombs had about 270lbs of explosives in them. If this location were a WW-II airfield, it is the sort of bomb that would have been dropped on airplanes on the ground to destroy them. Most of the damage to Japan's cities was actually done by napalm-filled bomblets combined into cluster-bombs[1], partly because weather made precision bombing difficult. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M69_incendiary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M69_incendiary
- rtkwe 2y ago
  Also Japanese construction was conveniently, for the US, extremely flammable so you could do way more damage starting a firestorm than you could with the same number of bombers filled with traditional bombs. There was also the incredible plan to fill a bomb with bats strapped with tiny incendiary charges on timers so they would be dropped, go roost somewhere, and hopefully start even wider spread fires. They spent about 2 million dollars on it before it was cancelled because the atomic bomb was showing much better progress. They also accidentally proved it's effectiveness and burned down part of the testing facility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
  - HarryHirsch 2y ago
    It was the great success of the Allied firebombing campaign that inflicted suburbia on the United States. US construction is just as flammable but fire is less likely to spread when the houses are farther apart. (Let's rephrase the success part. The campaign was destructive and deadly for the civilian population but did nothing to end the war earlier. Bomber Harris and the Lord Lindemann got a career boost, though.)
    - pfdietz 2y ago
      > but did nothing to end the war earlier Really? To assert this, you need to show not that Axis production didn't decline, but that the damage done didn't prevent production from increasing even more. How does one show that?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
riffic 2y ago
a large crater the size of a small crater. the reference: https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/ https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/
MengerSponge 2y ago
That's a lot of earth though. Most bombs detonate above the ground because rock is really heavy.
cynicalpeace 2y ago
Watch the video- it was a large bomb
WorkerBee28474 2y ago
A crater that size can hold 80,000lb of dirt.
marshray 2y ago
Apparently it was sized appropriately to shut down the airport. A larger probability of a small crater(s) requiring repair would seem better for this purpose than a smaller probability of a large crater.
kragen 2y ago
that's a little bigger than my old apartment. i think it doesn't look big in the picture because nothing is visible nearby to give it scale
anon_cow1111 2y ago
That's likely a stock image completely unrelated to the actual explosion. Blame reporters(or the sites they work for) for normalizing this behavior. If it's not, I can't tell because it's hard to get a sense of scale from the video and image. The crater only appears maybe 2 or 3 meters wide judging by the grass, the painted stripes, and the overall taxiway width.

bradgessler 2y ago

Agreed, seems very very small for 5000lb of explosives. Guessing it didn't reach its full yield given that its been buried under ground for decades.

lupusreal 2y ago
If the crater is only 1 meter deep then the bomb was likely more shallow than that (although some of the ejected dirt will fall back into the crater). So much of the bomb's energy went into the atmosphere.
Oarch 2y ago
Article says 500lb.
aidenn0 2y ago
~270lbs of explosives in a US 500lb bomb.

sholladay 2y ago

It would have done considerably more damage if it had gone off when and where it was intended. The runway is designed to have enormous, heavy planes takeoff and land on it routinely, it undoubtedly absorbed a lot of the bomb’s energy. Not to mention the earth underneath it.

bell-cot 2y ago
> It would have done... Real WWII historians could probably determine the date on which the bomb was dropped, its intended target, etc., etc. But with the condition that most of Japan was in, later in WWII - I'm thinking that "gone off where & when intended" would probably have had little effect. Most of the country was burned-out rubble.

0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago

Did historical bombs typically make big explosions? Reading some numbers from the war, it seemed like the strategy was more to dump enormous volume of ordinance and hope to get lucky hitting something vital.

SoftTalker 2y ago
That strategy was not because the bombs weren't very destructive, but because they just could not be placed accurately. So they had to drop a lot of bombs and hope a few of them hit the strategically important targets.
skriticos2 2y ago
Yep. The US did drop around 160,800 tons of conventional bombs on Japan during WWII, thought that's still relatively tame compared to the 623,000 tons they drop on Germany. Though the two nukes more than made up for it, I guess. Bomb findings during construction is nothing especially rare in these countries.
- Scoundreller 2y ago
  So like, is “no unexploded ordinances detected” a checkbox/service for those “call before you dig” organizations in those places?
  - ornornor 2y ago
    In some parts of France, you can’t dig without getting a specialized surveyor inspection and certificate it’s safe to dig this deep in that place first.
  - crote 2y ago
    Absolutely. In my country it is mandatory to submit an UXO report as part of getting the building permit for nontrivial stuff. Most of the time this is boring office work (Was there a strategic target nearby during WWII? Are there any records of bombing happening here? Have there been earthworks in the last 70 years significant enough to rule out anything still remaining?) and you get a report noting that there's no risk expected, but sometimes you have to call in the cavalry and go searching with ground-penetrating radar. It's just part of doing business, really. Same story with archaeological remains, chemical contamination, or threatened animal species.

aidenn0 2y ago

The US 500lb bombs had about 270lbs of explosives in them. If this location were a WW-II airfield, it is the sort of bomb that would have been dropped on airplanes on the ground to destroy them. Most of the damage to Japan's cities was actually done by napalm-filled bomblets combined into cluster-bombs[1], partly because weather made precision bombing difficult. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M69_incendiary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M69_incendiary

rtkwe 2y ago
Also Japanese construction was conveniently, for the US, extremely flammable so you could do way more damage starting a firestorm than you could with the same number of bombers filled with traditional bombs. There was also the incredible plan to fill a bomb with bats strapped with tiny incendiary charges on timers so they would be dropped, go roost somewhere, and hopefully start even wider spread fires. They spent about 2 million dollars on it before it was cancelled because the atomic bomb was showing much better progress. They also accidentally proved it's effectiveness and burned down part of the testing facility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
- HarryHirsch 2y ago
  It was the great success of the Allied firebombing campaign that inflicted suburbia on the United States. US construction is just as flammable but fire is less likely to spread when the houses are farther apart. (Let's rephrase the success part. The campaign was destructive and deadly for the civilian population but did nothing to end the war earlier. Bomber Harris and the Lord Lindemann got a career boost, though.)
  - pfdietz 2y ago
    > but did nothing to end the war earlier Really? To assert this, you need to show not that Axis production didn't decline, but that the damage done didn't prevent production from increasing even more. How does one show that?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

riffic 2y ago

a large crater the size of a small crater. the reference: https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/ https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/

MengerSponge 2y ago

That's a lot of earth though. Most bombs detonate above the ground because rock is really heavy.

cynicalpeace 2y ago

Watch the video- it was a large bomb

WorkerBee28474 2y ago

A crater that size can hold 80,000lb of dirt.

marshray 2y ago

Apparently it was sized appropriately to shut down the airport. A larger probability of a small crater(s) requiring repair would seem better for this purpose than a smaller probability of a large crater.

kragen 2y ago

that's a little bigger than my old apartment. i think it doesn't look big in the picture because nothing is visible nearby to give it scale

anon_cow1111 2y ago

That's likely a stock image completely unrelated to the actual explosion. Blame reporters(or the sites they work for) for normalizing this behavior. If it's not, I can't tell because it's hard to get a sense of scale from the video and image. The crater only appears maybe 2 or 3 meters wide judging by the grass, the painted stripes, and the overall taxiway width.