Anti - personnel mine Anti - personnel mines are a form of land mine designed for use against humans , as opposed to anti - tank mine s , which are designed for use against vehicles . Anti - personnel mines may be classified into blast mines or fragmentation mines , the latter may or may not be bounding mine s . The mines are often designed to injure , not kill , victims in order to increase the logistical ( mostly medical ) support required by enemy forces that encounter them . Some types of anti - personnel mines can also damage the tracks on armoured vehicles or the tires of wheeled vehicles . The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has sought to ban land mines culminating in the 1997 Ottawa Treaty , although this treaty has not yet been accepted by a number of countries including the USA , Russia , People ' s Republic of China , Pakistan and India . Use . Anti - personnel mines are used in a similar manner to anti - tank mines , in static " mine fields " along national borders or in defense of strategic positions as described in greater detail in the land mine article . What makes them different from most anti - tank mines , however , is their smaller size , which enables large numbers to be simultaneously deployed over a large area . This process can be done manually , via dispensers on land vehicles , or from helicopters or aircraft . Alternatively , they can be dispensed by cargo - carrying artillery shells . Other uses specific to anti - personnel mines , are where they are deployed on an ad hoc basis in the following situations : Blast mines . Typically , anti - personnel blast mines are activated i . e . they are triggered when the victim steps on it . Their primary purpose is to blow the victim ' s foot or leg off , disabling them . Injuring , rather than killing , the victim is viewed as preferable in order to increase the logistical ( evacuation , medical ) burden on the opposing force . Effect . When a person steps on a blast mine and activates it , the mine ' s main charge detonate s , creating a blast shock wave consisting of hot gases travelling at extremely high velocity . The shock wave sends a huge compressive force upwards , ejecting the mine casing and any soil covering the mine along with it . When the blast wave hits the surface , it quickly transfers the force into the subject ' s footwear and foot . This results in a massive compression force being applied to the victim ' s foot . In most cases , the victim ' s foot is blown off by the blast wave . The resulting injuries to a human body depend on the size of the mine ' s main charge , the depth , type of soil it was laid in and how the victim contacted it e . g . stepping on the mine using all or part of the foot . Different types of soil will result in different amounts of energy being transferred upward into the subject ' s foot , with saturated " clay - like " soil transferring the most . Larger main charges result in a release of significantly more energy , driving the blast wave further up a target ' s foot and leg and causing greater injury , in some cases even described as severe as traumatic amputation of the foot up to the knee . Secondary injuries from a blast mine are often caused by the material that has been torn loose by the mine ' s explosion . This consists of the soil and stones that were on top of the mine , parts of the victim ' s footwear and the small bones in the victim ' s foot . This debris creates wounds typical of similar secondary blast effects or shrapnel . Special footwear , including combat boots or so - called " blast boots " , is only moderately protective against the destructive effects of blast mines , and the loss of a foot is a typical outcome . Blast mines have little effect on armoured vehicles , but can damage a wheeled vehicle if it runs directly over the mine . Small blast mines will severely damage a tire , rendering it irreparable while some types could also damage adjacent running gear . Components . Mine casing . The mine casing houses the components of the mine and protects it from its environment . Early land mines , such as the ones used in the World War II era , had casings made of steel or aluminium . However , by the middle of World War II , the British Army was using the first , practical , portable metal detectors — the Polish mine detector . The Germans responded with mines that had a wooden or glass casing to make detection harder . Wooden mines had been used by the Russians in 1939 , before the appearance of metal detectors , in order to save steel . Some , like the PP Mi - D mine , continued to be used into the 1980s as they were easy to make and hard to detect . Wood has the disadvantage of rotting and splitting , rendering the mine non - functional after a comparatively short time in the ground . Mines manufactured after the 1950s generally use plastic casings to hinder detection by electronic mine detectors . Some , referred to as Minimum metal mine s , are constructed with as little metal as possible – often around – to make them difficult to detect . Mines containing absolutely no metal have been produced , but are uncommon . By its nature , a mine without any metal components in it cannot be found using a metal detector . Pressure plate / fuze mechanism . The fuze mechanism is designed to set off the detonator , either by striking it with a spring - loaded firing pin , compressing a friction sensitive pyrotechnic composition , or by passing an electric charge through it . Most mines employ a spring - loaded striker that hits a stab detonator when activated by the victim . Typically , the detonator contains a tiny pellet of lead azide . The fuze is the most complicated component in any landmine , though the amount of effort required to design and manufacture a simple fuze mechanism is quite low . For example , the retraction mechanism inside a cheap plastic ballpoint pen could easily be adapted to function as a basic anti - personnel landmine fuze after minor modifications . It follows that any factory capable of manufacturing retractable ballpoint pens could easily manufacture such fuzes . More sophisticated examples , such as the Italian SB - 33 mine have a fuze mechanism that detonates the mine if subject to gradual , steady pressure , but locks the fuze if subject to a sudden shock . This defeats one of the main methods of clearing a path through a minefield — detonating the mines with explosive devices , such as Mine - clearing line charge s . Booster . The booster charge is a highly sensitive explosive that will explode easily when subjected to the shock of the detonator . Typically , a pea - sized pellet of RDX is used . The purpose of the booster is to amplify the shock of the detonator and initiate the main explosive charge . Main charge . The main charge consists of a stable explosive that is detonated by the booster charge . This is necessary , because making a mine out of highly sensitive detonator or booster explosive would be more expensive , and make the device more sensitive and thereby susceptible to accidental detonation . In most AP blast mines TNT , Composition B or phlegmatized RDX are used . On a U . S . M14 mine , 29 grams of tetryl is used , while 240 grams of TNT is used in a Russia n PMN mine . Deployment . Anti - personnel blast mines are the most common type of land mine and typically deployed on the surface ( hidden by leaves or rocks ) or buried under soil at depths of 10 – 20 mm . They are activated by pressure i . e . when the victim steps on them , but could also be a vehicle driving over them . They were designed for use as area denial weapons . Weapons of this type are supposed to deny opposing military forces access to a specific area . Fragmentation mines . While blast mines are designed to cause severe injury to one person , fragmentation mines ( such as the World War II era German S - mine ) are designed to project fragments across a wide area , causing shrapnel wounds to nearby personnel . Fragmentation mines are generally much larger and heavier than blast mines , and contain a large amount ( often several kilograms ) of ferrous metal . As such , they are easy to detect if the environment is not too heavily contaminated with iron . Effect . These mines are deemed more effective than purely " blast effect " mines , because the shrapnel effect covers a greater area , potentially injuring more combatants . The shrapnel from these mines can even disable some armoured vehicles , by puncturing their tires and — in the case of soft - skinned vehicles — also penetrating the skin and damaging internal components or injuring personnel . Because fragmentation mines generally contain a much larger charge than blast mines , they can cause severe damage to an unarmoured vehicle which runs directly over one . Types of fragmentation mine . Stake . These mines ( such as the Russian POMZ ) are entirely above ground , having a fragmenting warhead mounted on a stake at a suitable height , concealed by vegetation or rubbish and triggered by one or more tripwire s . Bounding . Bounding mine s have a small lifting charge that , when activated , launches the main body of the mine out of the ground before it detonates at around chest height . This produces a more lethal spray of shrapnel over a larger area . One such — the US M16 mine — can cause injuries up to away . The steel shrapnel makes bounding mines easy to detect , so they may be surrounded by Minimum metal mine s to make mine clearance harder . Directional . Directional fragmentation weapons ( such as the M18 Claymore ) differ from other types in that they are designed to direct their fragments only in limited arc . They are placed so that the blast will be directed at the target area and away from friendly forces . This design also allows forces to protect themselves by placing these types of mines near their own positions , but facing the enemy . They are triggered in a conventional manner with either tripwire or command detonation . They are generally referred to as " claymore mines " from the US mine of this type . Other mine types . During World War II , flame mines known as the flame fougasse were produced by the British during the invasion crisis of 1940 . Later , the Russians produced a flame - mine , called the FOG - 1 . This was copied by the Germans to produce the Abwehrflammenwerfer 42 , these devices were effectively disposable , trip - wire triggered flamethrower s . Chemical mines have also been made . They were made by Britain , the US and the Soviet Union during World War II , but never deployed . During the Cold War , the US produced the M23 chemical mine containing VX ( nerve agent ) . A small explosive charge burst the mine open and dispersed the chemical when the mine was triggered . Patentability . Anti - personnel mines are a typical example of subject - matter excluded from patentability under the European Patent Convention , because the publication or exploitation of such invention s are contrary to the " ordre public " and / or morality ( ) . Criticism of name . Rob Nixon has criticized the use of the adjective " anti - personnel " to describe land mines , noting that the word " personnel " signifies people engaged in a particular organization , whereas in reality " four - fifths of land mine casualties are civilians " , in particular children . Thus , he argues , the name " flatters their accuracy by implying that they target an organization , military or otherwise . "