The Simultaneous Explosion of Dozens of Sea Mines Near Vietnam

On August 4, 1972, dozens of mines that were submerged in the water near the North Vietnamese port of Hai Phong detonated in a matter of seconds. Thousands of mines laid by American troops in the waters off the coast of North Vietnam were waiting for passing ships. However, no ships had launched them in this instance. The sheer number of mines that went off at once suggested it must have been something significant, but the pilots in the area observed nothing at all that could have set them off. For years, the cause was completely unknown.

2018 has passed, and researchers have a plausible reason. In order to connect to boat hulls and detonate, those sea mines used magnets as part of their triggering mechanism. The magnetic triggers may have been hampered by an appropriately intense solar storm, which would have set them all off at once. According to research, the sun's activity was higher in the days preceding the explosions, and other nations experienced magnetic interference as well. Before concealing their research, the military had even proposed a solar storm as the probable reason.