Project Pre-GONDOLA I. Crater Studies: Surface Motion
Abstract
Project Pre-Gondola I was a series of chemical explosive, single-charge cratering experiments in weak, wet clay shale conducted by the U. S. Army Engineer Nuclear Cratering Group as a part of the Joint Atomic Energy Commission-Corps of Engineers nuclear excavation research program. The four 20-ton (nominal) charges were detonated during the period 25 October to 4 November 1966, near the edge of Fort Peck Reservoir approximately 18 miles south of Glasgow, Montana. Motions of the ground surface were measured by high-speed photography of surface targets which had been positioned as far as 96 feet from each surface ground zero (SGZ). The results indicated that the maximum SGZ velocities recorded for these detonations were larger than those for cratering detonations in other media at comparable scaled burial depths. The four Pre-Gondola I detonations produced maximum SGZ velocities of 255, 200, 167, and 139 ft!sec for scaled burial depths of 152, 167, 187, and 202 ft/kt1/3, respectively. Maximum resultant surface velocities for the three shallowest detonations varied approximately as the -2.2 power of the radial distance from the charge. The maximum resultant surface velocities for the deepest detonation varied approximately as the -2.9 power of the radial distance from the charge.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1968
- Accession Number
- ADA395916
Entities
People
- J. E. Lattery
- W. G. Christopher