NK: Coudl it have been a underground blast..close to the surface?

[ranosgol]

Most tests are now done underground, I was thinking it was underground Nuclear blast but done at a shallower depth than the west does.

I sitl have my doubts though cause it was veyr close to the Chinese border but maybe that does not matter.

[Ediacara]

1. Even at a shallow depth

I'd imagine that the overburden (that's the dirt...) would have had enough of a dampening effect to make the cloud much smaller....

It seems to have been right on a rail line, so maybe it was another "accident" like the one last spring..... Although this one seem to be much bigger.

[Eric J in MN]

2. I think it was an above-ground nuclear test (nt)

nt

[blackcat77]

3. My theory:

Something (missile factory, ammo dump, whatever) blew up underground, but not too deep underground. That blast penetrated the surface and created the possible mushroom cloud, which happens with any sort of large, hot blast, not just nukes. After that, the fires and burning debris could have set off fires on the surface which resulted in the "pillar of smoke" which was also mentioned.

As an aside, it was almost funny to read some of the stuff that was posted here and on Slashdot last night. Probably FR was even funnier, but I've learned that for the sake of my own mental health, it's not wise for me to go there whenever there's any sort of crisis...

[salin]

4. There are numerous potential explanations... and yours makes

sense to me - but with most stories like this I take a wait and see attitude... as well as a "what past stories might this link up with" (my brain retains key snippets of political stories for years)... so be this nuclear or not... it certainly raises the question of the bush admin behavior towards NK and hard intel that NK was starting to move towards nukes again - (the bushies suppressed the info... as it was learned during their hard political thrust to get the IWR passed.) Which in turn is part of a bigger picture that we should all be talking more about... that this administration has on multiple occaisions... taken actions (or inaction) that are politically expedient for them but might (or do) risk national security. That composite image sorta counters the one they are running on, doesn't it...