Explosion
Between November 1955, and April 1958, a three-shift operation involving an average of 75 men worked to build a 174 metre vertical shaft from Maud Island, a 762 metre horizontal shaft to the base of Ripple Rock, and two main 91 meter vertical shafts into the twin peaks, from which "coyote" shafts were drilled for the explosives. The contract was awarded to two firms for $2,639,000. At the time of the contract it was estimated the tunnels and shafts would not be completed until either 1957 or 1958 1,270 metric tons of Nitramex 2H explosives were placed in these shafts, estimated at ten times the amount needed for a similar explosion above water.
The explosion took place at 9:31:02 am on April 5, 1958. 635,000 metric tons of rock and water was displaced by the explosion, resulting in debris at least 300 metres in the air, falling on land on either side of the narrows. The blast increased the clearing at low tide to about 14 metres (45 feet).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOh20xpFmZI
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police cleared the area of within 3 miles of the explosion, and the engineers and TV crew that witnessed the explosion were housed in a bunker.
The explosion was noted as one of the largest non-nuclear planned explosions on record, though Soviet authorities reported a larger explosion in the Ural Mountains to carve a new channel for the Kolonga River and in China to open a copper mine.
Read more about this topic: Ripple Rock
Famous quotes containing the word explosion:
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