NZ, US attempted to create tsunami bomb

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome) was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded in August 1945. Photo / Thinkstock

New Zealand and the United States conducted thousands of secret tests attempting to create a "tsunami bomb" during World War Two, a New Zealand author has claimed.

About 3,700 bombs were exploded off Auckland's Whangaparaoa Peninsula and New Caledonia in the operation, dubbed "Project Seal".

The operation found a series of 10 large offshore explosions could generate a 10 metre tsunami, according to research by Kiwi author and film-maker Ray Waru.

"Presumably if the atomic bomb had not worked as well as it did, we might have been tsunami-ing people," Mr Waru told the Telegraph.

Mr Waru told the Telegraph the project was launched in 1944 after US naval officer E A Gibson noted that blasts used to clear coral reefs around Pacific Islands often created a large wave.

He found the plans in military files in the national archives and has published his discoveries in the book, Secrets and Treasures.

The files reportedly said initial testing was positive, however the project was ditched in early 1945. It was concluded that a single explosion would not be powerful enough to generate a tsunami, but a line of about 2 million kilograms of explosives about 8km from shore could create a giant wave capable of inundating a small city.

Mr Waru's book also has Defence records of UFO sightings, including drawings of unidentified aircraft, descriptions of aliens wearing "pharaoh masks" and alleged extraterrestrial writing, the Telegraph reported.

- nzherald.co.nz