Abstract: During the period 1948-1958, approximately 40 nuclear weapons
tests were performed on the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands of
the central Pacific Ocean. In 1973, the results of a survey contracted
by the US Atomic Energy Commission specified that extensive
decontamination of the land areas would be necessary before the people
of Enewetak could return to the atoll. During Operation Redwing in
1956, several members of the New York University Departments of Biology
and Environmental Medicine visited the atoll and collected water,
plankton and beach coral samples to study the distribution of
foraminifera among the islands of Enewetak and other nearby atolls. Of
the specimens collected, 22 samples of beach material from the highly
contaminated northern islands of Enewetak remained intact and were

available for study. Analyses of the radionuclide concentrations of

these samples have provided interesting information regarding the
levels of contamination that existed on Enewetak at that time.

Major Descriptors: *CORALS -- RADIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS; *FORAMINIFERA -RADIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS
Descriptors: AMERICIUM 241; CESIUM 137; COBALT 60; ENIWETOK; EBUROPTIUM 155;
HARDTACK PROJECT; REDWING PROJECT
Broader Terms: ACTINIDE ISOTOPES; ACTINIDE NUCLEI; ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES;
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES; AMERICIUM ISOTOPES; ANIMALS; BETA DECAY
RADIOISOTOPES; BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES; CESIUM ISOTOPES;
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS; CNIDARIA; COBALT ISOTOPES; EUROPIUM ISOTOPES;
EXPLOSIONS; HEAVY NUCLEI; INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI; INTERNAL CONVERSION
RADIOISOTOPES; INVERTEBRATES; ISLANDS; ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES;
ISOTOPES; MARSHALL ISLANDS; MICRONESIA; MICROORGANISMS; MINUTES LIVING
RADIOISOTOPES; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEI; OCHANIA; ODD-EVEN NUCLEI;
ODD-ODD NUCLEI; PROTOZOA; QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS; RADIOISOTOPES
( RARE EARTH ISOTOPES; RARE EARTH NUCLEI; SARCODINA; YEARS LIVING
RADIOISOTOPES

Subject Categories:

510302*

-- Environment,

Terrestrial -~ Radioactive

Materials Monitoring & Transport -- Terrestrial Ecosystems & Food
Chains

10/5/638
01573168

--

(-1987)

(Item 338 from file: 103)
ERA-10-026048; EDB-85-079945

Author(s): Burton, D.E.;
Swift, R.P.;
Glenn, H.D.;
Bryan, J.B.
Title: Blast induced subsidence in the craters of nuclear tests over coral
Corporate Source:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)

Conference Title: 26. U.S. symposium on rock mechanics
Conference Location: Rapid City, SD, USA
Conference Date:
Publication Date: Feb 1985
p 9
Report Number(s):

Order Number:

UCRL-91639;

DE85007975

Contract Number

(DOE):

Document Type: Report;
Language: English
Journal Announcement:

CONF-850671-4

W-7405-ENG-486

Conference literature

NTS8506

Availability: NTIS, PC AO02/MF AOl.
Subfile;:

NTS

Abstracts).

26 Jun 1985

(NTIS);

INS

(US

*

Atomindex

input);

ERA

(Energy Research

Country of Origin: United States
Country of Publication: United States
Abstract: The craters from high-yield nuclear tests at the Pacific Proving
Grounds are very broad and shallow in comparison with the bowl-shaped
craters formed in continental rock at the Nevada Test Site and
elsewhere. Attempts to account for the differences quantitatively have
been generally unsatisfactory. We have for the first time successfully
modeled the Koa Event, a representative coral-atoll test. On the basis
of plausible assumptions about the geology and about the constitutive
relations for coral, we have shown that the size and shape of the Koa
crater can be accounted for by subsidence and liquefaction phenomena.
If future studies confirm these assumptions, it will mean that some
scaling formulas based on data from the Pacific will have to be revised
to avoid overestimating weapons effects in continental geology. 9
refs., 5 figs.

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