The devastation caused in South East Asia by the cataclysmic Tsunami wave on Boxing Day 2004 was a significant reminder of the power of nature. Over 310,000 people were to lose their lives in many different countries, some as far away as five thousand miles from the earthquake that triggered the catastrophe. Nobody could fail to be moved by the images beamed around the world of entire regions that, put simply, were no longer there anymore as the wave had erased it all in one of history's great natural disasters. It also, for some researchers, revealed one of the darker sides of mankind, the Tsunami Bomb.

Professor Thomas Leech, an Australian, was awarded a CBE in 1947 for his work on developing a weapon, which was given the name Project Seal. No further details were released at the time as work was 'ongoing and top secret' although this led to great speculation. However, declassification of some top-secret military files in the year 2000 revealed Professor Leech's, who died in 1973, deadly secret.

In 1915, during the early years of World War One, a ship packed with weapons exploded in the English Channel causing a mini tidal wave. Those witnessing the effects recalled the Krakatoa volcano, which erupted in 1883 causing a tidal wave that resulted in 36,000 deaths in the area. The accident in 1915 gave rise to the idea of deliberately generating such a phenomena by using underwater explosives and Project Seal was established.

In both 1944 and 1945 Leech, who had been seconded to the Army, created a series of sub aqua explosions at Whangaparaoa, off the coast of New Zealand's North Island. Results showed thirty foot waves and the tests were considered to be so significant and successful that a member of the US Board of Assessors of Atomic Tests, Dr Karl Compton, was dispatched to New Zealand to consider the conclusions. A letter from the US Government to the New Zealand authorities in Wellington followed the visit.

'Dr Compton is impressed with Professor Leech's deductions on the Seal project and is prepared to recommend to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that all technical data from the test relevant to the Seal project should be made available to the New Zealand Government for further study by Professor Leech.'

In addition, US authorities considered sending Professor Leech to Bikini Atoll and witness the nuclear tests in the hope they may assist Project Seal. It was also during 1945 that the Atomic Bomb was finally ready for testing and it would appear the US and British Governments were seriously considering Project Seal as a realistic alternative to the atomic bombing of Japan, with the added benefit of it appearing to the world as a natural disaster. Defence chiefs are known to have believed that if the Tsunami Bomb had been fully developed by the end of the war it would undoubtedly have been used and man made wave could have flattened Japan.

In addition to this, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, evidence confirmed that Russian scientists had been extensively researching Tsunami bomb technology during the Cold War to destroy large areas of Southern England and Holland whilst avoiding the problems of radiation fall out created by a nuclear attack. Which is considerate of them isn't it.