Suspected mine detonated in surf off N.J. beach

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

BAY HEAD, N.J. — A military explosives team is taking what’s left of a suspected mine back to their shop to try to determine what it was and how it ended up partially buried in the sand in the ocean off New Jersey.

A plume of water shot about 125 feet in the air and a boom echoed through Bay Head on Wednesday as the team detonated the device with a 10-pound charge of C-4 explosives.

Naval Weapons Station Earle public affairs officer Michael Brady says the base’s explosives ordnance disposal detachment believes it was just the detonation charge that exploded.

Authorities evacuated about 15 homes and a quarter mile radius as a precaution.

Brady says last year’s Superstorm Sandy may have exposed the device.