Underground nuclear detonations

Abstract

Since 1952 eight nuclear explosions have been fired underground at the Atomic Energy Commission's Nevada Test Site. The explosions varied in energy release from 55 tons to 19,000 tons of TNT equivalent. Depths of burial varied from shallow, to produce cratering, to deep, where no visible effects appeared on the surface. The major experimental data from these explosions, as well as the phenomenology of the deeper shots, are summarized here.