Project Shoal
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Project Shoal was an underground nuclear test that took place on October 26, 1963 within the
Sand Springs Range The Sand Springs Range is a short mountain range located in western Nevada in the United States within the Great Basin. It is approximately long and is in Churchill County. It separates Salt Wells (to the west) from Fairview Valley (to the e ...
, approximately southeast of Fallon, Nevada, in a granite formation of the range. The site was selected because its earthquake activity afforded a basis for seismic signal comparisons.Nevada Blast Begins Test Detection Effort
// ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'', November 11, 1963, v. 79, no. 20, p. 119. Project Shoal was part of the
Vela Uniform Vela Uniform was an element of Project Vela conducted jointly by the United States Department of Energy and the Advanced Research Projects Agency. Its purpose was to develop seismic methods for detecting underground nuclear testing, and it involved ...
program sponsored jointly by the U.S Department of Defense and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Vela Uniform was directed toward locating, detecting, and identifying underground detonations. The objective of Project Shoal was to detonate a nuclear device underground in an active seismic area so that seismic traces for the test and prior earthquakes could be compared and differentiated. The test was performed on October 26, 1963. It involved detonating a 12-kiloton nuclear device in granitic rock at a depth of approximately below ground surface.


References

{{coord, 39.200, -118.381, display=title Explosions in 1963 Churchill County, Nevada American nuclear weapons testing 1963 in the United States Explosions in the United States