GEOLOGY OF THE CHINESE NUCLEAR TEST SITE NEAR LOP-NOR, XINJIANG-UYGURAUTONOMOUS REGION, CHINA

Authors
Citation
Jr. Matzko, GEOLOGY OF THE CHINESE NUCLEAR TEST SITE NEAR LOP-NOR, XINJIANG-UYGURAUTONOMOUS REGION, CHINA, Engineering geology, 36(3-4), 1994, pp. 173-181
Citations number
NO
Categorie Soggetti
Geology,"Engineering, Civil
Journal title
ISSN journal
00137952
Volume
36
Issue
3-4
Year of publication
1994
Pages
173 - 181
Database
ISI
SICI code
0013-7952(1994)36:3-4<173:GOTCNT>2.0.ZU;2-M
Abstract
The Chinese underground nuclear test site in the Kuruktag and Kyzyltag mountains of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwest China, is the location of sixteen underground tests that occurred between 19 69 and 1992. The largest test to date, conducted on 21 May 1992, had a reported yield of about one megaton. Geophysical properties of the ro cks and a large-scale geologic map of part of the test area were publi shed by the Chinese in 1986 and 1987 and are the first site-specific d ata available for this test site. In areas of low relief, underground nuclear testing has occurred below the water table, in shafts drilled vertically into dense, low porosity Paleozoic granitic and metasedimen tary rocks. Additional testing in areas of more rugged terrain has occ urred in horizontal tunnels, probably above the water table. At least one of these tunnels was driven into granite. The upper 50 m of the ro ck in the area of the vertical tests is weathered and fractured; these conditions have been shown to influence the magnitude of the disturba nce of the land surface after a nuclear explosion. These descriptions suggest hard rock coupling at depth and a closer resemblance to the fo rmer Soviet test site in eastern Kazakhstan than to the U.S. test site in Nevada.