Project Pre-Schooner: Surface Motion Measurements

W. G. Christopher · Jerome E. Lattery

ene 1968 · U.S. Army Engineer Nuclear Cratering Group

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Project Pre-SCHOONER consisted of four 20-ton nitromethane cratering detonations conducted by the United States Army Engineer Nuclear Crate ring Group as part of the joint Atomic Energy Commission-Corps of Engineers nuclear excavation research program. The experiment was conducted in February 1964 in the basalt of Buck- board Mesa at the Nevada Test Site. High speed photography and target markers were used to measure ground surface motions produced by each of the four detonations. Analysis of the surface motion data indicated that spalling was the principle crater-producing mechanism. The three detonations which produced apparent craters did, however, show varying amounts of second phase surface accelerations. Surface ground zero spall velocities ranged from 100 fps for the detonation at a 66-foot burial 1/3 depth (scaled depth of 236 ft/kt) to 170 fps for the detonation at 1/3 a 42-foot burial depth (scaled depth of 150 ft/kt).