Post-shot subsidence crater and Huron King test chamber, which was less than 20 kilotons (1980)
A subsidence crater is the crater left on the surface of an area which has had an underground (usually nuclear) explosion. Many such craters are present at the Nevada Test Site, which is no longer in use for nuclear testing. Operation Tinderbox was a series of fifteen nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site in 1979 and 1980. ... A megaton or megatonne is a unit of mass equal to 1,000,000 metric tons, i. ... The word crater may refer to A landform resembling a pit or depression in the topography that can be formed in several ways: speculation exists that a meteorite impact with another body can cause an impact crater, an electrical discharge on any scale tends to form circular craters, volcanic activity... A nuclear explosion (nuclear detonation) has occurred: twice using a nuclear weapon during war (during World War II, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) many times testing a nuclear weapon a series of tests of nuclear explosives for construction purposes; see Operation Plowshare Potential other applications (not yet applied... The Nevada Test Site is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the City of Las Vegas. ...
Subsidence craters are created as the "roof" of the cavity caused by the explosion collapses. This causes the surface to depress into a "sink" (which subsidence craters are sometimes called). It is possible for further collapse to occur from the sink into the explosion chamber. When this collapse reaches the surface, and the chamber is exposed atmospherically to the surface, it is referred to as a chimney. Gasoline explosions, simulating bomb drops at an airshow. ...
It is at the point that a chimney is formed that radioactive fallout may reach the surface. Fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion and is named from the fact that it falls out of the atmosphere in to which it is spread during the explosion. ...
At the Nevada Test Site, depths of 100 to 500 meters were used for tests.
Subsidence craters in the southern section of the Nevada Test Site.
The Nevada Test Site is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the City of Las Vegas. ...
Underground testing often leaves visible evidence on the surface in the form of subsidencecraters in varying dimensions.
Subsidencecraters are depressions on the surface that occur when the roof of the blast cavity collapses into the void left by the explosion.
The size of the subsidencecrater depends on the yield of the device, the depth of emplacement, and the geological characteristics of the surrounding soil.