A tectonic weapon is a hypothetical device or system which could create earthquakes, volcanoes, or similar events in specified locations by interference with the earth's geological processes. It was defined in 1992 by Aleksey Vsevolovidich Nikolayev, corresponding member Russian Academy of Sciences: "A tectonic or seismic weapon would be the use of the accumulated tectonic energy of the Earth's deeper layers to induce a destructive earthquake". He added "to set oneself the objective of inducing an earthquake is extremely doubtful".
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Reports
Roger Clark, lecturer in geophysics at Leeds University said in the respected journal Nature in 1996, responding to a newspaper report that there had been two secret Soviet programs, "Mercury" and "Volcano", aimed at developing a "tectonic weapon" that could set off earthquakes from great distance by manipulating electromagnetism, said "We don't think it is impossible, or wrong, but past experience suggests it is very unlikely". According to Nature these programs had been "unofficially known to Western geophysicists for several years". According to the story the Mercury program began in 1987, three tests were conducted in Kyrgyzstan, and Volcano's last test occurred in 1992.
Such weapons, whether or not they exist or are feasible, are a source of concern in official circles. For example, US Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, said on 28 April 1997 at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy, University of Georgia, while discussing the dangers of false threats, "Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves."
New Zealand's unsuccessful Project Seal programme during World War II attempted to create tsunami waves as a weapon. It was reported in 1999 that such a weapon might be viable.
Nikola Tesla claimed a small steam-powered mechanical oscillator he was experimenting with in 1898 produced earthquake-like effects, but this has never been replicated. The TV show MythBusters in Episode 60 .E2.80.93 made a small machine based on the same principle but powered by electricity rather than steam; it produced vibrations in a large structure detectable 100 feet away, but no significant shaking, and they judged the effect to be a busted myth.
International treaties
The 1978 Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques is an international treaty ratified by 75 states, and signed by a further 17, that prohibits use of environmental modification techniques to cause earthquakes and tsunamis, amongst other phenomena.
Conspiracy theories
After natural tectonic phenomena such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, conspiracy theories, usually relating to the armed forces of the United States and formerly the Soviet Union, often arise, though no evidence is advanced. After the Haiti earthquake it was widely reported that president Hugo Chávez of Venezuela made unsupported allegations that it had been caused by testing of a US tectonic weapon. The newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda of Moscow reported on page 1 on 30 May 1992 that "a geophysical or tectonic weapon was actually developed in the USSR despite the UN Convention", but that Chief Seismologist Major-General V Bochrov of the USSR Ministry of Defence categorically rejected any hints on the existence of tectonic weapons.
While the British Tallboy bomb of World War II was called an earthquake bomb, the name came from its way of destroying very hardened targets by shaking their foundations as an earthquake would; it was never intended to cause an actual earthquake.