A tsunami bomb may sound like a trashy cocktail but, as it turns out, it’s actually exactly what its name implies.

According to newly-disclosed documents, the United States government eyed using a real tsunami-causing explosive during WWII. In collaboration with New Zealand, the U.S. carried out secret tests to develop a bomb that was capable of creating 33-foot tidal waves. Conspiracy theories that such a bomb was used to cause the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami no longer seem so ludicrous.

The idea of using a weapon to create tidal waves has long been the stuff of paranoid folklore, but archives dug up by filmmaker Ray Waru prove that the idea belongs in the annals of history. A scary, disheartening history…

Codenamed “Project Seal,” because apparently seals are known to create city-leveling waves, the operation was surprisingly successful. As Waru stated, “It was absolutely astonishing… to have successfully developed it to the degree that it might have worked.”

The science fiction-worthy plot was apparently shelved, although only to make room for a more devastating weapon: the nuclear bomb. So, alas, human morality didn’t prove the victor in the end, more killing power did.

The design team behind “Project Seal” tested a whopping 3,700 bombs before the plan was ultimately scrapped. Factor in the money and time investment for such an endeavor, throw in the improved technology developed over the years, and there’s no reason why tsunami bombs might not still around. After all, it would be a great way to wipe out coastal enemies without anyone pointing any fingers, or bringing in the International Criminal Court.

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