Richard Montgomery Thames Estuary Timebomb

In 1944, the American ship SS Richard Montgomery ran aground on a sandbank in the Thames Estuary while carrying munitions from the United States, and it later broke apart and sank. The wreck still holds an estimated 1,400 tons of high explosives, including around 2,000 cases of cluster bombs, and lies partially submerged in one of the busiest shipping lanes in Britain. Government reports have warned that a full detonation could be one of the largest nonnuclear explosions ever recorded and might even generate a small tsunami in the estuary. Because engineers judge large-scale removal of the cargo too dangerous, the British government has imposed an exclusion zone around the wreck and continues to monitor it rather than attempt a full clearance.

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