The Influence of Clay and Water in Rocks on Containment of Underground Nuclear Explosions.

This report describes a series of spherically symmetric calculations of the ground motions due to underground nuclear tests located in Nevada Test Site rocks of different clay and water contents. In particular, calculations of the Baneberry event, believed to be located in a rock of unusually high clay and water content, are compared with calculations for more typical NTS rocks. The Baneberry medium is thought to have considerably lower shear strength due to the abnormal clay and water contents. Calculations with these lower strengths showed far lower residual stress fields when compared to calculations for other media. A discussion of the relevance of these calculational results to containment is presented. Author