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
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.