Project Gnome (nuclear test)
Project Gnome was the first nuclear test of Project Plowshare and was the first continental nuclear weapon test since Trinity to be conducted outside of the Nevada Test Site, and the second test in the state of New Mexico after Trinity. It was tested in southeastern New Mexico on December 10, 1961, approximately 40 km southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico.
View toward the top of the salt dome cavity created by the Gnome underground nuclear test
Monument at the Project Gnome site in March 2004.
shaft to ground zero
surface ground zero
Project Plowshare was the overall United States program for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes. The program was organized in June 1957 as part of the worldwide Atoms for Peace efforts. As part of the program, 35 nuclear warheads were detonated in 27 separate tests. A similar program was carried out in the Soviet Union under the name Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy.
The 1962 "Sedan" plowshares shot displaced 12 million tons of earth and created a crater 320 feet (98 m) deep and 1,280 feet (390 m) wide
One of the Chariot schemes involved chaining five thermonuclear devices to create an artificial harbor.
