Can underwater ammo explode?

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CAPTAIN SINBAD

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When wrecks sit at the bottom loaded with explosive ordnance, is there a detonation risk? Does anyone know about explosion caused by corrosion? Would torpedoes and depth charges pose a bigger risk than surface ammo that has sunk? If anyone would shed some light, Id appreciate.
 
I'm afraid to ask why you want to know....
You are aware that diving on sunken military vessels is frowned upon or outright prohibited in some locations? Some are officially designated as war graves.
 
Small arms ammo? Or larger? UXO?

UXO stay away very very far away. It can explode at any moment as it should've exploded but it didn't which means any safety mechanisms are removed. Larger stuff I would stay away unless you are expert enough to have answered the question on your own.

Small arms, it is probably safe to touch, but I wouldn't know why you would want to. You can buy most of it on the internet in much better condition.
 
Your typical navy wreck dive that was either intentionally sunk, or has been well explored shouldn't have risk of ammo spontaneously exploding from corrosion. However if you're poking around in an unexplored wreck with live ammo, and you bump into live-ammo or a depth charge, that's on you.

That said, I'd be far more concerned about other risks of diving in an enclosed environment, and this is one of those areas you definitely want the appropriate training. I can't tell if you have that training, but a lot can go easily wrong, such as getting lost, trapped, knock something over on yourself, silt out the place, bump into the ceiling, etc.

Handgun or rifle ammo, you'd basically have to be practically touching it to be injured, even if somehow managed to explode. Bullets need a barrel to accelerate. The shell could theoretically act somewhat like a grenade with larger rounds, but the water would slow down the shrapnel in a relatively short distance.
 
OP, you know Google or similar can give you the answer?

And it does’t have to be on a shipwreck/war grave either.

Underwater explosions are not always under the control of humans. Some explosive charges become very sensitive and volatile with age (cf. Bohn 2007). From seismograph data it was concluded that self detonations of deposited old ammunition has occurred in a trench off the Scottish coast (Ford et al.”

https://www.ascobans.org/sites/default/files/document/AC22_Inf_4.6.e_Ordnance_Removal.pdf


Here’s an old photo of the Canadian military disposing of munitions off Georgian Bay, Ontario.

997F86DF-03B6-4A7B-8578-CB234803CDD6.jpeg
 
Smoking a cigarette too. Health and safety regs were a lot laxer back then.

I wonder if this was a staged, non-lit cigarette to get a rise out of the rest of us. If so, the practical joke works well.
 
That depends on what kind of ammo you are talking about.

But generally speaking - yes they can, especially if they are being moved around or touched

Just stay away
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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