Ripple skirt
| Ripple skirt | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | Discovery Passage | |
| Geographical location | 50 ° 8 ′ N , 125 ° 21 ′ W | |
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| Highest elevation | 14 m below sea level | |
The Ripple Rock is an underwater mountain in the Discovery Passage between Vancouver Iceland and the Canadian mainland upstream Quadra Island with two peaks. Originally, one of the two mountain peaks was only a little less than three meters (nine feet ) below the surface of the water.
After long discussions and first attempts since 1943, from 1955 a tunnel was driven under the seabed to the mountain peaks in 27 months of construction. The bottleneck was blown up on April 5, 1958 at 9:31 a.m. with 1,375 tons of the Nitramex explosive . The demolition was broadcast on television. It was the first live television broadcast to be seen across Canada. This was one of the largest conventional explosions in history, moving 370,000 tons of rock and 320,000 tons of water.
Today, the two mountain peaks are 13.7 m (45 ft) and 15.2 m (50 ft) below the surface and no longer pose a threat to shipping. 119 boats and ships sank at this danger point until the explosion 114 people were killed.
See also
Web links
- Ripple skirt . In: BC Geographical Names (English)
- Ripple Rock Explosion, Vancouver Island (English)
- Video of the explosion on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ^ Andrew Scott: The Encyclopedia Of Raincoast Places Names: A Complete Reference to Coastal British Columbia . Habour Publishing, Madeira Park (BC) 2009, ISBN 978-1-55017-484-7 , pp. 503 (English).
- ↑ Ripple Rock explosion: a look back. CBC News, April 1, 2014, accessed April 6, 2014 (English, CBC News broadcast with original recordings to commemorate the demolition).