CRATER SURVEY

Abstract

Photographic observation and fathometer measurements of CASTLE Shots 1, 3, and 4 were made to assist in the prediction of craters produced by megaton weapons. The Shot 1 crater could have been predicted satisfactorily from the IVY Mike Shot. Shot 3 crater was smaller than predicted on that basis. Both craters were larger than predictions based on simple scaling of the JANGLE surface shot, even if some allowance is made for the difference in soils. The Shot 4 crater, produced by a shot on the surface of water having a scaled depth of 0.05, was detectable but relatively small. A tunnel underneath it would probably have been breached but no hazard to navigation was produced. An extrapolation procedure based on smaller TNT explosions permits the prediction of the radius of the crater produced by a nuclear explosion under a wide range of circumstances. The range of uncertainty is believed to be larger than a factor of two. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1955
Accession Number
AD0361770

Entities

People

  • R. B. Vaile

Organizations

  • SRI International

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter IED
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Atolls
  • Efficiency
  • Equations
  • Explosion Effects
  • Explosions
  • Explosives
  • Ground Level
  • Islands
  • Measurement
  • Nuclear Explosions
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Observation
  • Photographs
  • Shock Waves
  • Waves
  • Weapons
  • Weapons Effects

Fields of Study

  • Geology
  • Physics

Readers

  • Explosive Engineering.