ustxtxb_obs_1972_07_21_50_00013-00000_000.pdf

July 21, 1972 13 I We are interested in publishing 1 I books on Texas, etc. If you have I 1 a manuscript, please write a short 1 we will advise you at once if we I are interested in looking at the II 1 manuscript. 1 1 1 1 1 1 h 1 FUTURA PRESS ..c 1 1 Phone 512/442-7836 1714 SOUTH CONGRESS P.O. BOX 3485 AUSTIN, TEXAS 0′.’P’.5%’:.:::t 3X’Csf’X’S , . , .. GALLERY 600 Contemporary Paintings, Sculpture, Prints THE FINEST TRADITIONAL FRAMING Custom Plexiglass and Custom Welded Frames 600 West 28th, at Nueces . . . phone 477-3229 on Environmental Quality, previously served as vice president of the Institute for Defense Analysis and was a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee. So he presumably knew what he was talking about in laying out the prospects for geophysical war. Tidal waves are one possibility. MacDonald writes, “If, along a 1,000-km edge of a continental shelf, a block 100 meters deep and 10 km wide were dropped a distance of 100 meters, about 100 megatons of energy would be released. This release would be catastrophic to any coastal nation. How could it be achieved? A series of phased explosions, perhaps setting off natural earthquakes, would be a most effective way. I could even speculate on planning a guided tidal wave, where guidance is achieved by correctly shaping the source which releases the energy.” Another possibility would be to change the constituents of the atmosphere so as to wreak havoc. MacDonald describes how this might be done: “A low concentration of ozone \(0 3, a rare molecular form of kilometers altitude has the utmost significance for life on land. It is responsible for absorbing the greater part of the ultra-violet rays from the sun. In mild doses, this radiation causes sunburn; if the full force of it were experienced at the surface, it would be fatal to all life including farm crops and herds that could not take shelter. The ozone is replenished daily, but a temporary ‘hole’ in the ozone layer over a target area might be created by physical or chemical action. For example, ultra violet at 250 millimicrons wave length decomposes ozone molecules, and ozone reacts with a wide range of materials.” Earthquakes can be used as weapons. MacDonald writes, “The use as a weapon system of the strain energy instability within the solid earth requires an effective triggering mechanism.” Pumping of underground water near Denver led to a small series of eath quakes thereby releasing strain energy that might otherwise have built up into a big earthquake. “A scheme for pumping water seems clumsy and easily detectable. On the other hand, if the strain pattern in the crust can be accurately determined, the phased or timed release of energy from smaller faults, designed to trigger a large fault at some distance, could be contemplated. This timed release could be activated through small explosions and thus it might be possible to use this release of energy stored in small faults at some distance from a major fault to trigger that major fault. For example, the San Andreas fault zone, passing near Los Angeles and San Francisco, is part of the great earthquake belt surrounding the Pacific. Good knowledge of the strain within this belt might permit setting off of the San Andreas zone by timed explosions in the China Sea and Philippine Sea.” Among the other horrors MacDonald warns of is the possibility of weathermen in one country changing the temperature in an enemy nation? 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