Super Magnetic Weapons (The Great Cataclysm)

Super Magnetic Weapons (can be abbreviated as SMW), also known as Nuclear-Magnetic Weapons, were experimental tectonic weapons used during WWIII and played a big part in causing The Great Cataclysm.

Purpose
Super Magnetic Weapons were strategic weapons that had the purpose of destabilizing Earth's crust in the targeted region by triggering tension in crustal weak points over a wide area, resulting with earthquakes that would cripple enemy ground forces and deter potential attacks. During WWIII, SMWs were detonated at or near ground level, in order to achieve optimum effectiveness. They were delivered using hypersonic missiles, torpedoes, and in gravity bombs.

Effects
The main effect of the weapon is the triggering of rapid diastrophism. This includes the perturbation of magmatic structures, significantly increasing activity within them, and the onset of major tectonic unrest within the crust, which results in the earthquakes that gives the weapon its usefulness. Another effect includes the generation of an extraordinarily strong EMP wave.

Development
In the early 2030s, a golden age for geology was realised after breakthrough geology studies gave insight into earthquake hazard mitigation through the use of advanced electromagnetic induction. By inducing electromagnetic currents into the lithosphere, which contain piezoelectric rocks that can affect / be affected by tectonic stresses, it can cause safe and controlled earthquake swarms that siphon off some tension from increasingly active fault lines, reducing the chance of large damaging quakes. By late 2032, early concepts of commercially viable electromagnetic inducers had already been drawn up in some countries, with tests conducted in early 2033. In that time frame however, governments including Russia, China and the USA furthered this research and exploited it in an attempt to create a next generation strategic weapon, greatly up-scaling its potency. During the weapon's development, it was found that SMWs alone, though potentially effective at generating powerful tectonic unrest, couldn't guarantee near-instant production of seismic activity upon detonation, which reduces its effectiveness in war. To counter this, it was found that combining a low-yield nuclear device (1 - 25 kt) with a SMW warhead and detonating it together simultaneously could act as the needed trigger for the near-instant effects, thus creating the phrase "Nuclear-Magnetic". By June 2035, the first SMW prototype code-named "Tiberia" was created as a result of joint Russian-Chinese efforts. The US, in a new arms race, managed to create and successfully test its own prototype in September of the same year. In the two years that led to WWIII, these nations managed to produce stockpiles that collectively totaled to 115 warheads.

Tiberia prototype test
On July 10, 2035, at approximately 22:00 local time (14:00 UTC), a single hypersonic missile armed with the prototype warhead is launched out of a missile base nearby the Chinese city of Luoyang. Traveling at Mach 9+, it reaches the target area within 12 minutes and detonates the payload 112 km south of the remote Ulugh Muztagh mountain group on the Tibetan Plateau, at a height of 93 meters, above a known fault line. Remote observation posts and satellites witnessed the explosion of the nuclear stage (approx. 7.3 kt). Approximately 40 seconds later, a Mw 8.0 earthquake occurred on the targeted fault with an epicenter 4 km from the detonation zone, followed by a Mw 7.4 quake on the same fault two minutes later, which was also followed by Mw 7.2, Mw 6.8, Mw 7.0, Mw 7.5 and Mw 7.3 earthquakes occurring on previously undiscovered faults in a radius of 125 km within 30 minutes. Aftershocks and earthquake swarms continued for several months, especially after the earthquake sequence led to the extension and creation of several faults. A significant amount of lithospheric deformation was registered during the earthquake sequence, with major subsidence being a big factor. The seismic activity manged to level even the most reinforced facilities and structures constructed specifically for the test, proving the weapon's catastrophic capabilities. Though the test was declared a success, multiple electronic equipment stationed for the test were inadvertently destroyed by the amplified EMP wave, which was much more powerful than anticipated.