Last Updated on September 16, 2022 by ADMIN-TOM
On the 6th of June 2002, a mid-air explosion occurred in an area between Cyprus, Crete, and Libya. The explosion released energy comparable to a small nuclear weapon. It became known as the Eastern Mediterranean Event and at the time, set alarm bells ringing around the world.
The event was during the 2001-2002 India and Pakistan standoff, with both countries firing high explosive shells at each other. Having carried out the successful detonation of nuclear devices in 1998 and both countries moving possible nuclear missiles to their respective borders, it was little wonder that the world suddenly took note of this occurrence.
There were concerns by General Simon Worden of the US Air Force that if the upper atmosphere explosion had occurred closer to Pakistan or India, it could have sparked a nuclear war between the two countries. A nuclear conflict that may have resulted in the loss of millions of lives.
It’s also worth noting that there have been twenty-six nuclear-scale blasts due to asteroids in the Earth’s atmosphere between 2001 and 2013. The most powerful of these explosions being dozens of times the magnitude of the atom bomb that was unleashed on Hiroshima in 1945.
Not one of these asteroids were picked up or noticed in advance by any space or Earth based observatories.
The fact these explosions were in the atmosphere, too high to cause damage, was pure luck. How long before something like the Tunguska Event of 1908 happens close to or over a heavily populated area? It has been estimated that the Tunguska explosion knocked over 80 million trees in an area of 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq. miles), and that if the shock wave from the blast had been recorded it would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale.
Just a thought, but perhaps we should be spending more on observatories than weapons.
Copyright © Tom Kane July 2022
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