Los Zetas plot to blow up U.S. dam....

[Original_MudButt]

Wouldn't most consider this an act of terrorism?? And why were authorities "secretly" scrambling??


"....According to the Houston Chronicle, Mexican and U.S. authorities were "secretly scrambling" last month to thwart a plot by the Zeta cartel to blow up Falcon Dam and unleash billions of gallons of water....."

Read it here:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...pplies-lawmaker-says/?test=latestnews#content

 

[bigalpha]

2 things:
1. Great reason to station US troops in the area
2. Seems like it'd be pretty easy to detonate some explosives at a dam.

 

[Boatwrench]

Bustin Dams w/explosives is no easy task. Just look up the 617. The History Channel did a special on this unique unit.

Even with the engineering advancements made over the last sixty years the weak spot would need to be calculated followed by enough explosives placed to cause the catastrophic failure.

 

[bigalpha]

I figured they could just float some explosives downriver or make some homemade depth charges.

 

[5-90]

I figured they could just float some explosives downriver or make some homemade depth charges.

Might work for knocking out hydro turbines, but dams are much more solid than you'd thing. Probably almost take a low-yield atomic to structurally knock the thing down.

 

[bigalpha]

If it isn't obvious, I'm not an engineer. Haha

 

[joe_peters]

Might work for knocking out hydro turbines, but dams are much more solid than you'd thing. Probably almost take a low-yield atomic to structurally knock the thing down.

Granted it would take a large powerful charge, but wouldn't the water pressure assist with the destruction, a la The Dam Busters of WWII?

 

[5-90]

Granted it would take a large powerful charge, but wouldn't the water pressure assist with the destruction, a la The Dam Busters of WWII?

Yes and no.

It's a cinch that most dams built since 1945 have been designed with that sort of thing taken into account, and those built before were reinforced over the next couple of decades.

Besides, water is a double-edged sword here. As a tamping medium, it's not bad - since shockwaves travel faster and more efficiently through it. But, it sucks - since shockwaves will go in all directions - it's difficult to build an overpressure wave in a given direction in water (which can be done in free air using hard surfaces.)

If you can get enough of a charge down into the hydro turbines, you've got a shot at it. Or, if you can get the charges into the internal personnel access passages in the dam. But, if you're looking to just drop a bomb on a damn and get the thing to break, you can pretty well forget it. You're either looking at several thousand tonnes of TNT (or equivalent - I can see, possibly, 3,000-4,000 tonnes of C4 having a chance...) or you have time and access to drill shot-holes near the abutments, where the dam meets the earth.

Good luck! There's no real "general rule" for blowing a dam - construction of the dam, geology of the surrounding area, anticipated water loading, purpose of the dam (power dam? Retaining dam? Turning a river valley into a reservoir? What?) are all factors - and that's just the factors that come to mind first. I've never had to handle the issue of blowing a dam, so I honestly don't know...

 

[joe_peters]

Thanks for the info. Not planning to blow any dams, for now!

 

[RichP]

Just keep in mind that the MK48 Torpedo does not sink ships by hitting them, it goes off 50ft under them and lifts them out of the water in two pieces, neatly broken, they sink faster that way.
I could think of several ways to take a dam out and you would not have to take it out, just weaken it enough to get the army corps in to condemn it.
In essence, mission accomplished, that dam will be drained and closed till it's either torn down and rebuilt or fixed but once the government agents are there that thing is basically dead for whatever it was doing.

 

[5-90]

Just keep in mind that the MK48 Torpedo does not sink ships by hitting them, it goes off 50ft under them and lifts them out of the water in two pieces, neatly broken, they sink faster that way.
I could think of several ways to take a dam out and you would not have to take it out, just weaken it enough to get the army corps in to condemn it.
In essence, mission accomplished, that dam will be drained and closed till it's either torn down and rebuilt or fixed but once the government agents are there that thing is basically dead for whatever it was doing.

Which would have a greater net effect than destroying it utterly anyhow. After all, they'd have to remove the dam, then inspect the footings, then recertify, then ...

The ultimate goal of sabotage is maximum disruption, not damage. Therefore, it's better to damage beyond use than to destroy totally...