Earthquake bomb The earthquake bomb , or seismic bomb , was a concept that was invented by the British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis early in World War II and subsequently developed and used during the war against strategic targets in Europe . Development . An explosion in air does not transfer much energy into a solid , due to acoustic impedance . Due to the lack of accuracy of bombing in the face of anti - aircraft defences , air forces used area bombardment , dropping large numbers of bombs so that it would be likely that the target was hit . Although a direct hit from a light bomb would destroy an unprotected target , it was comparatively easy to armour ground targets with many yards of concrete , and thus render critical installations such as bunkers essentially bombproof . If a bomb could be designed to explode in water , soil , or other less compressible materials , the explosive force would be transmitted more efficiently to the target object . Wallis ' s idea was to drop a large , heavy bomb with a hard armoured tip at supersonic speed so that it penetrated the ground — an effect comparable to a ten - ton bullet being fired straight down . It was then set to explode underground , ideally to the side of , or underneath a hardened target ; the resulting shock wave would produce the equivalent of a miniature earthquake , destroying any nearby structures such as dams , railways , viaducts , etc . Any concrete reinforcement of the target would likely serve to enclose the force better . Wallis also argued that , if the bomb penetrated deep enough , the explosion would not breach the surface of the ground and thus produce an underground cavern ( a " camouflet " ) which would remove the structure ' s underground support , thus causing it to collapse . The process was graphically described as a " trapdoor effect " or " hangman ' s drop " . Wallis foresaw that disrupting German industry would remove its ability to fight , and also understood that precision bombing was virtually impossible in the late 1930s . The technology for precision aiming was developed during World War II , however , and Barnes Wallis ' ideas were then shown to be superbly successful , considering the standards at the time . Wallis ' first concept was for a ten - ton bomb that would explode some 130 ft ( 40 m ) underground . To achieve this , the bomb would have had to be dropped from . The RAF had no aircraft at the time capable of carrying a ten - ton bomb load aloft , let alone lifting it to such a height . Wallis designed a six - engine aeroplane for the task , called the " Victory Bomber " , but he was not taken seriously by the military hierarchy of the day . Wallis took a different line with attacks on Germany ' s industrial structure developing a means to destroy the supply of hydroelectric power . After he had developed the bouncing bomb and shown its possibilities , however , RAF Bomber Command were prepared to listen to his other ideas , even though they often thought them strange . The officer classes of the RAF at that time were often trained not in science or engineering , but in the classics , Roman and Greek history and language . They provided enough support to let him continue his research . Later in the war , Barnes Wallis made bombs based on the “ earthquake bomb concept ” , such as the 6 - ton Tallboy and then the 10 - ton Grand Slam , although these were never dropped from more than about . Even from this low height , the earthquake bomb had the ability to disrupt German industry while causing minimum civilian casualties . It was used to disable the V2 factory , bury the V3 guns , sink the Tirpitz and damage the U - boat s ' protective pens at St . Nazaire , as well as to attack many other targets which had been impossible to damage before . One of the most spectacular attacks was shortly after D - Day , when a Tallboy was used to prevent German tank reinforcements from moving by train . Rather than blow up the tracks — which would be repaired in a day or so — the bomb was targeted on a tunnel near Saumur which carried the line under a mountain . It was dropped on the mountain , drilled straight through the rock , and exploded in the tunnel below . As a result , the entire rail line remained unusable until the end of the war . After World War II , the United States developed the T12 demolition bomb that was designed to create an earthquake effect . Given the availability of nuclear weapons , however , there was little or no development of conventional deep penetrating bombs until the 1991 Gulf War . During the Gulf War , the need for a conventional deep penetrator became clear . In three weeks , a cooperative effort directed by the Armament Systems Division at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida developed the GBU - 28 that was used successfully by F - 111F s against a deep underground complex not far from Baghdad just before the end of the war . The United States has developed a Massive Ordnance Penetrator , designed to attack very deeply buried targets without the use of nuclear weapons and their attendant risk of retaliation in kind .