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There are roughly 110 million unexploded land mines littering the planet, in about 68 countries.
They account for tens of thousands of casualties and several thousand deaths each year.
Recycling old machinery into steel balls, about an inch to 1.5in in diameter, then carpet bombing suspected minefields
would detonate a large proportion of the UXO (unexploded ordnance) in the area.
Since most of the world's minefields are in economically disadvantaged areas the balls would be available to be picked up by the locals and sold as scrap, making their way back into the metals use cycle of their country.
The same *could* be achieved using rocks, but given the high specific gravity of most metals, the balls have an advantage, having sufficient mass to detonate mines near where they land.
The state of the mine-clearing art
http://www.csir.co....5-05-23landmine.pdf
Not as exciting as I remember it, but... [moomintroll, Sep 25 2005]
Boats made from discarded fuel tanks
http://www.mag.org....es/loa/pxlao019.htm
Also Flower pots, machettes, bowls, etc. I can't find photos of everything, but there's plenty of text. Search UXO (unexploded ordinance). [Zimmy, Sep 25 2005]
[link]
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Despite all the good intentions, some people will undoubtedly get mad about the balls that just miss a target, and a local someday wanders out to get them, and...BOOM! |
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I saw something where they trained rats to sniff out old land mines. While slower, that way seems safer. |
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If this were done using gold and jewels, they would be more likely to be picked up. Also, less golden jeweled balls would need to be used, as the efforts to find those dropped would likely take care of many land mines. |
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In areas where poverty is such a problem it is likely that even sticks would be picked up, [bungston]. |
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I'm quite surprised that rats would survive
the impact. |
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good intentions but "large proportion" wouldn't cut it [UnaBubba]. Let's say large porportion was as high as 99% (which I highly doubt) and let's say that there were 10,000 land mines in the bombed area. |
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As soon as the word spread that the area has been bombed and "nearly" mine free + that there was free scrap metal lying around, there would be a HUGE "metal rush" in the local population to pick up anything they could..... now remember 99% of 10,000 is 9,900 .. this leaves 100 unexploded mines ... 100 maimed or killed civilians lured into the area in search of scrap metal. |
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...and yes you would have the area thoroughly mine free after that, but 100 of those mines would be cleared with human casualities. Not exactly the best thing. |
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I think you got yourself into trouble when you wanted to provide free scrap metal to the population ... that just makes things worse. Your idea could work if you were dropping something completely useless - or even better widely deemed as dangerous by the local population. That way 99% of the mines would explode and the extra bonus would be that people didn't feel tempted to venture into the mined area again until the remaining 1% was cleared by some safe means. That would truly save human lives. |
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Not every one of those 100 left over mines will be picked up. All the same, a 99% turnover is generous. |
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I read that GM bacteria could flouresce upon sensing any number of effluent residues from landmines. Moreso, they can provide a color-intensity relationship, so that a red glow shows the exact locale of the mine, with a varying degee of other colors radially extending outwards. |
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Machining metal is quite expensive. An economical alternative already in place is to set up an "exchange" whereby buisnesses can buy and sell scrap. One man's trash is another man's treasure, so to speak. |
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If I can muster any further reasons to bone this, I will note them. |
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On TV I saw in Laos/Cambodia/Kampuchea/? (whichever it's called now) people using recovered unexploaded bombs for things like vegetable planters & water tanks. I think they were using land mine metal for something as well. I wonder who got to be the one to remove the explosive? |
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The really nasty ones explode have motion sensors on so they explode if they're moved. I hate to post a pdf <linky>, but I read an article on this ages ago, and it appears to be the state of the art in mine clearance at the moment. Because it's relatively cheap. The original article suggested it could be manufactured locally, but it appears they've backed off from this. Disappointing. |
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It's a better solution than release of a herd of mad cows in a minefield. |
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Never quite sure what UnaBubba is on about but that probably says more about kats |
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Releasing cows with BSE, into miefields, has been seriously proposed at some point. No mine clearance method is foolproof, because we always manage to find a better fool. |
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An improvement on 25,000 casualties per year is a good thing. It's a shame that China, USA and Russia won't ratify the land mine manufacture moratorium. |
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As an almost aside, and without wishing
to produce a fully fledged idea along
these lines all by myself, but I'm
wondering: |
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Could buried mines of a selection of
known types exhibit some sort of
acoustic signature? If equipment that
could render a kind of 'sonar'-like
image of what kind of materials the
ground comprises, and where this
differs, where it is and how big it is, it
might be possible to form fairly
predictable inferences regarding what is
and isn't a buried mine, based on their
differing acoustic properties within the
ground, when buried. |
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That may well work, [IT]. |
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I know that ground-penetrating radar has been use at times, but it's not much use over very wide areas. |
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There's also been a lot of work done on radar imaging from the air. It's the same technology used to discover mass graves, relying on disturbed earth to pinpoint likely mine burial spots. |
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BTW, [ixnaum], I think your fears of a rush to collect scrap metal might be ill-founded. The locals are usually aware of the presence of minefields and will avoid such spots, to stay alive. |
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//locals are usually aware of the presence of minefields and will avoid such spots, to stay alive// |
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[UnaBubba] ... I agree with that completely ... but if you drop $20 worth of scrap metal it will change the whole equation. It will be too big of an attraction when the local population makes $1 per week. They will stay away exactly like you said ... BUT only until they are attracted by two things 1. scrap metal 2. feeling of security because last night they witnessed 9900 mines explode in a minute. And you are proposing both 1 and 2 |
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it has been proven over and over again ... locals *will* disregard posted signs about landmines if they feel that they have something to gain by venturing into the dangerous area. |
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OK, in that case we must follow up the bombing with a concerted effort to remove the remaining threat before the US reoccupies the area and seeds it with mines again. |
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The US may be responsible for a lot of things (including failing to outlaw the manufacture of mines), but many, many regimes and guerilla groups worldwide have to take responsibility for planting mines. I'm afraid my croissant just went stale. |
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Not my problem. The truth shall out. Do the research on where they come from... the US is one of the largest distributors of the insidious bloody things. Given their current involvement in most of the world's conflict I'd say the finger points that way. |
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"Hey look, these steel balls make excellent shelling ordinance." |
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//Laos/Cambodia/Kampuchea/? (whichever it's called now)//
As far as I know, which isn't very far, Laos and (Cambodia/Kampuchea) are different countries. |
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Laos is a landlocked nation, along the northwestern border of Vietnam, up to China and Burma (Myanmar); Cambodia borders the south of Vietnam, the southern border of Laos and Thailand. It has a short coastline alomg the Gulf Of Thailand, as I recall. |
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There are somewhere between 4 and 6 million UXOs in Cambodia, of which most are mines manufactured in the US, China, Vietnam, the former USSR and East Germany, the former Czechoslovakia, India, Chile, South and North Korea, Thailand, Iran, Iraq, South Africa, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Poland. |
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They cause about 1250 casualties per year, to the Cambodian population. It is estimated they will take around 100 years to clear. At current clearance rates the world's UXOs would take another 1100 years. |
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// How many times... ? // |
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Damn! Don't move! You've stepped on one and as soon as you lift your foot it's going to suck your whole leg off! |
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I wonder if the explosive will still be viable in 100 years. |
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Laos / Cambodia - I thought I might have mixed those up. It's hard to keep up with the new names of countries at times. I thought they changed the name of one of those & wasn't sure which one. |
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I wonder how much it costs to change the name of your country? Is the old currency still good? |
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