#Geology, it turns out, may have foiled one of the most audacious American air operations in recent memory.

But Jeanloz says those shockwaves weaken quickly as they move into the rock. #Fordow’s position directly under the ridge of the mountain probably maximized that protection.

In fact, going deeper is a simple solution to the threat of #BunkerBusters. A major conclusion from the 2005 study was that "it's cheaper & easier for someone to dig deeper than it is to penetrate through that depth," he says.

Based on satellite imagery, it looks like they may have been dropped in pairs, with the first weapon fracturing the rock to increase the penetrating depth of the second. The bombers also appeared to target #Fordow's ventilation system, a possible weak point.

The weapons likely created a powerful shockwave in the rock that would have traveled deep underground, rattling the facility below.

"If there's any variations ... including fractures or gaps, that can deflect the trajectory into the ground," he says. Those same variations can disperse any blast from the bomb.

It's clear that #US planners were aware of these kinds of challenges. Rather than dispatching 1 or 2 GBU-57s, they sent 12 to drop on #Fordow.

In medium-strength rock, things looked far different. The #GBU57 could only go around 7.9 meters (about 25 feet) beneath the earth — far short of the 60 meters claimed by the infographics.

This may be an important part of the reason the weapon failed to destroy its target — if indeed the bombs did #fail as the #DIA assessment claims.

"It depends enormously on the kind of rock," says Raymond Jeanloz, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley & one of the original authors of the 2005 National Academies Study on earth penetrators.

When I ran the calculations, using a key equation from that study, Geoff Brumfiel found out that the #GBU57 could go up to 80 meters (262 feet) underground if it was dropped in silty clay.

Decades ago, Geoff Brumfiel covered another effort to create a powerful Earth-penetrating weapon. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, with an eye toward the caves of Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden was believed to be hiding, then-President George W. Bush's admin looked at whether a #nuclear weapon could be dropped from a plane into the ground. The Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, as the concept was known, would deliver a powerful shock to underground tunnels & bunkers.

Yesterday, the White House disputed that claim.

"The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President #Trump," White House propagandist Karoline Leavitt said on the social media platform X. "Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration."

Well ... not necessarily.

Now it appears it may not have. Acc/to a still #classified assessment by the #Defense #Intelligence Agency, the #bombs did not "obliterate" #Iran's #Fordow enrichment site as #Trump initially claimed. Instead, the strike did only limited damage to the advanced centrifuges kept there. At most, the program was set back "a few months," acc/to a US ofcl who confirmed the assessment's existence to NPR but remained anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to press.

Only the #US had this 30k-pound weapon. Only America could hit #Iran's most deeply buried #uranium enrichment site at a place called #Fordow. It was buried beneath nearly 90 meters (around 300 feet) of rock, far deeper than Israeli bombs could penetrate.

There was only one problem — Geoff Brumfiel wasn't entirely sure it would work.

#Trump says ‘I’m not’ interested in restarting talks with #Iran

“The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done,” he said.

“I don’t care if I have an agreement or not” because “we destroyed the nuclear,” deflating Iran’s atomic ambitions.

“They’re not going to be doing it anyway,” Trump said. “They’ve had it.”

#idiocracy #kakistocracy #FactCheck #TrumpLies
https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-news-updates-6-25-2025#00000197-a779-dc99-a79f-b7fd166b0000

@AaronDavid @dmacphee

Whoever sent this to you was lying or didn’t care about the truth. The real story and an additional photo is linked below:

https://www.citizen.co.za/lowvelder/news-headlines/2020/07/02/photographer-reveals-the-real-story-behind-his-viral-lion-photo/