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By Beth Stibal |

Did the Navy’s bomb and earthquake off Florida cause Surfside collapse?

According to the Miami Herald, South Florida officials have raised concerns that a Navy test explosion off the coast of Florida that caused a small earthquake in South Florida last week could have also been a potential cause of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South.

According to the Navy, on June 18 it conducted the first of several planned so-called Full Ship Shock Trials (FSSTs) in the coming months off the east coast of Florida.
The detonation was to determine if the USS Gerald R. Ford war ship could withstand a near miss. The ship was about 100 miles from Ponce Inlet in Volusia County when the 40,000 pound explosive was set off right next to it. Video provided from the Navy on Twitter shows the ship, and then and a cloud balloon in the water.

Ponce Inlet is about 250 miles north of Surfside.

“[Investigators] are going to check it out,” according to Abieyuwa Aghayere, a professor of forensic engineering at Drexel University. He told the Herald that most buildings in Florida are not designed to withstand earthquakes.

When the US Navy detonated the 40,000lb bomb, it triggered a 3.9 earthquake in the Atlantic Ocean about 100 miles off the east coast of Florida on Friday.

The shock trial was conducted by the U.S. Navy by triggering an explosion near its new aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford.

The big blast registered as a 3.9 magnitude earthquake, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.

The U.S. government agency recorded the activity as an “experimental explosion” about 100 miles off the coast of Florida, where a Navy spokesperson confirmed the warship, USS Ford, is undergoing shock trials.

The shock trials test new ship designs to ensure they can withstand near misses during war.