California Earthquakes Leave Naval Station China Lake ‘Not Mission Capable’

SAN DIEGO – Two major earthquakes that struck Southern California late last week opened fault lines on Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and prompted officials to evacuate residents. Since Saturday, the Navy testing installation has been declared “not mission capable until further notice.”

As of late Monday, the Navy’s key research-and-development site for major aviation and weapons systems testing and evaluation remained off-limits to anyone but mission-essential personnel, as crews worked to inspect facilities at the sprawling installation complex.

China Lake, which covers 1.2 million acres of the Mojave desert, felt the brunt of the significant tremors, from the magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck at the morning of July 4 to...

China Lake Naval Air Station "Destroyed"

This story wasn't really reported on widely in the mainstream media, but hot damn! If true, this is clearly one of the more important places that was "greatly adversely affected" by the 7.1 mag earthquake.

a reply to: AnakinWayneII

The reports were that the quake started right under China Lake, that's some coincidence....

I feel a conspiracy, I know nothing of possible seismic weapons, but hot damn!
I highly doubt any military complex would test a seismic weapon in an area as volatile as California.

Unless...

"Destroyed" or damaged? The hyperbole is strong here.

They are assessing the damage. The only thing destroyed is the reporting by this reporter.

originally posted by: schuyler
"Destroyed" or damaged? The hyperbole is strong here.

Not sure, the story says 'not mission capable' and they evacuated personnel.

originally posted by: GreenGunther
I feel a conspiracy, I know nothing of possible seismic weapons, but hot damn!
I highly doubt any military complex would test a seismic weapon in an area as volatile as California.

Unless...

If I had a "seismic weapon", I wouldn't test it anywhere near a large city of mine, particularly one as active as that area. That's just borrowing trouble.
And i definitely wouldn't test it on a known weapons range. The whole point would be to have a quiet capability noone knows about. You've got lots of ocean out there, unfriendly nations, the Antarctic, etc. Why would California near fault lines overdue for a quake be a good plan exactly?

originally posted by: RadioRobert

originally posted by: GreenGunther
I feel a conspiracy, I know nothing of possible seismic weapons, but hot damn!
I highly doubt any military complex would test a seismic weapon in an area as volatile as California.

Unless...

If I had a "seismic weapon", I wouldn't test it anywhere near a large city of mine, particularly one as active as that area. That's just borrowing trouble.
And i definitely wouldn't test it on a known weapons range. The whole point would be to have a quiet capability noone knoed about. You've got lots of ocean out there, unfriendly nations, the Antarctic, etc. Why would California near fault lines overdue for a quake be a good plan exactly?

you could create a seismic weapon by using resonating pulsing frequencies. or just small explosions under ground to form a resonating pattern. They know that though, the Military would not be doing that in that part of the country. They are smarter than that....I hope.

originally posted by: butcherguy

originally posted by: schuyler
"Destroyed" or damaged? The hyperbole is strong here.

Not sure, the story says 'not mission capable' and they evacuated personnel.

Well, when water and sewer mains break, you don't want extra "useless" people about.

There's probably damage to the WSL and other labs to clean up before work can start again. Even if it's just clearing out ceiling tiles in offices and picking up the pieces takes time. All the support facilities including gas, water, electric ! Then there's an issue of making sure your tarmac, taxiways, and runways are both level, aligned, and not cracked (to say nothing of the roads) if you want to support airborne weapons testing. All the remote sites have to be re-surveyed, particularly sensor and target sites if you want accurate data (and targeting!). Most "weaponized" sensors have some s-resistance built in so near misses don't destroy you, but testing equipment is often not built to take that sort of abuse, and a 7.1 is a good shake even if your equipement is robust. So there is probably quite a bit of equipment damage as well as facility damage. Even "structures" like sumps, retention basins, drains and washes are going to be inspected eventually to make sure they still work as advertised (ie, slopes are still correct, aligned so they still clear rainwater). Lots of work to be done, I'm sure. They'll inspect everything, triage it all, and slowly bring things back to normal.

So "not mission capable" ( ie capable of supporting the amount of normal weapon testing) doesn't surprise me, even if actual structural damage is slight (which isn't a given).

a reply to: RadioRobert

Unless it was the work of an adversarial nation. Coincidence happens but this is one of those that fall under the "strange coincidence" category.

It seems the technology is scientifically feasible. Not sure it wouldn't leave signatures though.

a reply to: AnakinWayneII

What a piece of crap calling it "Destroyed"....

The base is hardly destroyed. It's suffered damage, and non-essential personnel were moved out of the area because of the damage, but all indications are that it suffered damage, but is far from "destroyed".

a reply to: The GUT

Why target China Lake?

originally posted by: RadioRobert

originally posted by: GreenGunther
I feel a conspiracy, I know nothing of possible seismic weapons, but hot damn!
I highly doubt any military complex would test a seismic weapon in an area as volatile as California.

Unless...

If I had a "seismic weapon", I wouldn't test it anywhere near a large city of mine, particularly one as active as that area. That's just borrowing trouble.
And i definitely wouldn't test it on a known weapons range. The whole point would be to have a quiet capability noone knows about. You've got lots of ocean out there, unfriendly nations, the Antarctic, etc. Why would California near fault lines overdue for a quake be a good plan exactly?

You're assuming that it was the United States who tested the weapon.

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

Even if it was someone else, China Lake is a pretty lousy test area.

For the love of it all

Surely they had that base fitted for earthquakes?? The military plans for everything. I doubt they failed to take in tbe earthquake factor when they built there over the years. Not to mention whatever extra measures they must have in place there, because of the nature of the testing they do. So damn, must have been a REALLY bad 7.1 earthquake(s).

Seems off.

originally posted by: djz3ro
a reply to: AnakinWayneII

The reports were that the quake started right under China Lake, that's some coincidence....

No!! I learned in the other earthquake threads that it was SNOW MELT. Snow melt caused those two earthquakes. Don't even HINT at hinting that it was anything than snow melt.

originally posted by: RadioRobert

originally posted by: GreenGunther
I feel a conspiracy, I know nothing of possible seismic weapons, but hot damn!
I highly doubt any military complex would test a seismic weapon in an area as volatile as California.

Unless...

If I had a "seismic weapon", I wouldn't test it anywhere near a large city of mine, particularly one as active as that area. That's just borrowing trouble.
And i definitely wouldn't test it on a known weapons range. The whole point would be to have a quiet capability noone knows about. You've got lots of ocean out there, unfriendly nations, the Antarctic, etc. Why would California near fault lines overdue for a quake be a good plan exactly?

Exactly. It was snow melt that caused the quakes. Snow melt.

a reply to: KansasGirl

You can't build to withstand earthquakes after a certain point. There was a 6.5 foot lateral movement. That's going to require more than is fiscally reasonable to withstand.