8 April 1998
Thanks to D
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 08:21:46 -0800 [Note date] From: Vlad Shkurkin <shkurkin@IX.NETCOM.COM> Subject: Has the map been declassified? To: Multiple recipients of list MAPHIST <MAPHIST@HARVARDA.HARVARD.EDU> Hello MapHisters, Someone out there has a copy... ------------------------------------- In the late 1960s, the United States Atomic Energy Commission, through its contractors at the Nevada Operations Office (NVOO) were (secretly) approached by Phillips Petroleum, or Shell, or Standard Oil, to provide them with a detailed three-dimensional map of the subsurface structure of Alaska along the path of the proposed pipeline, allegedly to identify potential seismic reinforcing which would be needed in its construction. In reality, these petroleum geologists owned large blocks of gold mining stock, and they wanted to use the resulting map to identify potential terrane contacts, which had scraped the ocean floor and deposited gold in concentrated form along a "lode" where the terrane contacts took place. One such location might have been along the north face of the Wrangel accretion zone. In order to justify the costs of such an endeavor, the petroleum aggregate proposed to expand the regular underground tests and pay for this expansion, thereby hiding their involvement, because the tests were "Top Secret". Satellite linked ground seismic sensors were placed at precisely grid-oriented locations throughout Alaska. Then a single underground explosion was detonated to calibrate this network of sensors, which provided three-axis signatures at each point, and transmitted this information in real time via satellite to the large antenna array in Southern California and then to the supercomputer complex at the California Institute of Technology and to the special Inverse Fourier Facility at the NVOO offices in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Some of these sensors are still in place, to monitor the testing activity in China and Siberia). The calibration explosion was considered routine, but its true extent was classified "Secret". Publicly I believe only three "shots" were announced. The actual number, following common Nevada Test Site practice, was considerably more than that. The main experiment to produce this map was the detonation of 5 obsolete warheads (part of a program to determine how long a warhead can be in storage), which were placed in a precisely spaced row (a "row shot") in a specific orientation to the Alaskan trench, and detonated at slightly different times (milliseconds apart) to provide a focused beam of seismic energy in the required direction, thus exciting the Alaskan trench to act as a planar seismic energy source. (Why this was needed was never explained to me -- I did not have the proper security clearance). The resulting three-dimensional map might be yet classified, and many even deny its existence. However, a two-dimensional derivative was known to have showed up, and just as quickly disappear, at the insurance offices of Lloyd's of London. This was in the mid-1980s. Since there was never a flurry of speculation on the market in the 1970s of Alaskan gold mining stocks (although some analysts might disagree), there still exists the possibility of other mineral exploration, if they ever declassify this terrane contact-defining map. There was even a fall-back cover story circulated among employees of E.G. & G., Inc., that this was an effort funded by the United States Geological Survey, and that the test was not conducted in Nevada for "safety reasons", in fear that it may trigger an earthquake in Southern California..... The USGS was also interested in the potential of detecting deep focus earthquake precursors by measuring the effect of having the trench behave as a wave guide for the electromagnetic pulse generated by the thermonuclear explosions. ----------------------------- References: (http://www.em.doe.gov/bemr96/ainp.html) (http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/) Now that virtually everything is being declassified, has anyone heard of or actually seen this map or data set?" Cheers, Vlad v