Super Magnetic Weapons (The Great Cataclysm)

Super Magnetic Weapons (SMWs), also referred to as "Nuclear-Magnetic Weapons", were tectonic weapons used during World War IV and played a major part in causing The Great Cataclysm. 
== Purpose ==
Super Magnetic Weapons are strategic weapons that have the purpose of destabilizing the tectonic setting in the targeted region. These serve to trigger the tension in crustal weak points over a wide area, resulting in earthquakes that would cripple enemy forces on the ground, and deter potential attacks. Just like with nuclear weapons, SMWs also fall under the "MAD" doctrine, due to their devastating and wide-ranging effects. 
During WWIV, SMWs were targeted at major tectonic boundaries and fault lines, along with numerous volcanic complexes, with disastrous consequences. These were delivered using various methods including hypersonic missiles, specialized drone torpedoes, and space-based delivery systems. 
== Effects ==
The main effect of the weapon is the triggering of rapid diastrophism. This includes the disturbance of magmatic structures within the crust and upper mantle, mainly magma chambers and mantle plumes, and the onset of major tectonic unrest within the crust, resulting in destructive earthquakes that give the weapon its purpose in combat. Another effect includes the generation of an extraordinarily strong EMP.
== Development ==
In the early 2030s, following the end of World War III, a golden age for geology was realised after breakthrough studies gave insight into earthquake hazard mitigation through the use of advanced electromagnetic induction. By inducing electromagnetic currents into the lithosphere, which contain piezoelectric rocks that can both influence and be influenced by tectonic stresses, it can cause safe and controlled earthquake swarms that siphon off some tension from increasingly active fault lines, reducing the chance of large damaging quakes. By late 2032, early concepts of commercially viable electromagnetic inducers (EMIs) had already been drawn up in some countries, with tests conducted in early 2033. 
In that time frame however, some nations including Russia, China and the United States created secretive programs to further this research and exploit it in an attempt to create a next generation strategic weapon. This would significantly up-scale the potency of commercial EMIs by greatly amplifying the power of electromagnetic induction to create tectonic instability, therefore creating "Super Magnetic" devices. During the weapon's development it was found that amplified electromagnetic induction alone, though potentially effective at generating powerful tectonic unrest, couldn't guarantee near-instant production of seismic activity upon detonation, which reduces its effectiveness in war. To counter this, it was found that combining a low-yield nuclear device (1 - 50 kt) with a SMW warhead and detonating it together simultaneously could act as the needed trigger for the near-instant effects, thus creating the phrase "Nuclear-Magnetic". By June 2035, the first SMW prototype code-named "Tiberia" was created as a result of joint Russian-Chinese efforts. The US, in a new arms race, managed to create and successfully test its own prototype in September of the same year, under "Project Hades". 
In the years that led to WWIV, these nations continued to produce stockpiles that collectively totaled in the several hundreds. 
=== Tiberia prototype test ===
On July 3, 2035, at approximately 22:00 local time (14:00 UTC), a single hypersonic missile armed with the prototype warhead was launched out of a missile base nearby the Chinese city of Luoyang. Traveling at speeds of up to Mach 9+, it reached the target area within 12 minutes and detonated the payload 112 km south of the remote Ulugh Muztagh mountain group on the Tibetan Plateau, at ground level, above a known fault line. Remote observation posts and satellites witnessed the explosion of the nuclear stage (approx. 5.0 kt). Approximately 30 seconds later, a Mw (Moment magnitude) 8.0 earthquake occurred on the targeted fault with an epicenter 4 km from the detonation zone, followed by a Mw 7.4 quake on the same fault two minutes later, which was thereafter followed by Mw 6.7, Mw 6.8, Mw 7.0, Mw 6.5 and Mw 7.1 earthquakes occurring on previously undiscovered faults in a radius of 125 km within 30 minutes. Aftershocks and earthquake swarms continued for many months, due to the extension and creation of several new faults. A significant amount of lithospheric deformation was registered during the earthquake sequence, with major ground subsidence being a prominent factor. The seismic activity manged to level even the most reinforced facilities and structures constructed specifically for the test, proving the weapon's capabilities. Though the test was declared a success, multiple electronic equipment stationed for the test were inadvertently destroyed by the amplified EMP wave, being much more powerful than anticipated.
=== Project Hades prototype test ===
Category:The Great Cataclysm
Category:Tectonic Weapons