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Tired Mountain Syndrome

en.wikipedia.org

11–20 of 24 posts

Re: Tired Mountain Syndrome

#11
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the rock is riddled through with fractures. Weakening the whole mountain

Is there a difference between "tired" amd "stressed" in this context?

the word they're looking for is fatigued

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatigue_(material)

Re: Tired Mountain Syndrome

#12
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the rock is riddled through with fractures. Weakening the whole mountain

Is there a difference between "tired" amd "stressed" in this context?

It's more like "fatigue" in the materials science context.

Subterranean nuclear testing produced rock fatigue from the unusual stresses and strains.

It's one of the few geologically detectable effects of the anthropocene era, like increased atmospheric CO2, and the discontinuity in the baseline C-14/C-12 ratio. If human civilization were to be erased from Earth, a future researcher would still be able to determine that at some point, something dug up carbon fuels and burned them for power, and at a somewhat later point, something detonated nuclear weapons in the open atmosphere, and in underground tests.

Re: Tired Mountain Syndrome

#14

Does anybody have more details on what these underground nuclear test sites are like? It seems like the whole thing would just collapse after the first explosion, and be completely unobservable. And if it was observable, that seems like it would create problems too.

They literally drill a hole into the ground and stick a nuke in it. The surrounding rock is vaporized, but eventually the pressure and heat is low enough that the surrounding earth can contain it. You're left with either a big void in the earth, or if the nuke wasn't buried deep enough the void collapses and makes a crater on the surface.

You might have thought that there was some giant underground complex, but it's really just mining equipment drilling a hole and a bunch of sensors strung out feeding data to recording devices that are a long way away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_nuclear_weapons_te...

Edit: to clarify, they don't reuse holes for repeat testing (that I'm aware of), they just drill a new one a few miles apart. So a "testing site" is just a bunch of land that the government owns and is willing to never use it for anything else.

Re: Tired Mountain Syndrome

#17

Wait; is the mountain releasing radioactivity from the bomb tests, or is the radioactivity coming from the rock and soil itself? The later is mmuch more interesting than the former.

And why "tired?" Is that a term for something other than what you feel at the end of a long day?

I think it's more like metal fatigue, so Mountain Rock Fatigue Syndrome might be more appropriate?

Re: Tired Mountain Syndrome

#18
post #13

This was a feature of project gasbuggy (nuclear fracking): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gasbuggy

> It was part of Operation Plowshare, a program designed to find peaceful uses for nuclear explosions. I don’t know how that would ever be possible.

Civil engineering uses lots of explosives, so I can see how someone would reasonably think that. Cutting canals and mountain passes and the like.

Problem is the same as the problem of military use - you usually wants the force distributed in a very specific way.

Re: Tired Mountain Syndrome

#19

Does anybody have more details on what these underground nuclear test sites are like? It seems like the whole thing would just collapse after the first explosion, and be completely unobservable. And if it was observable, that seems like it would create problems too.

They literally drill a hole into the ground and stick a nuke in it. The surrounding rock is vaporized, but eventually the pressure and heat is low enough that the surrounding earth can contain it. You're left with either a big void in the earth, or if the nuke wasn't buried deep enough the void collapses and makes a crater on the surface. You might have thought that there was some giant underground complex, but it's…

Sometimes the same hole is reused, though not usually:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_Site

Re: Tired Mountain Syndrome

#20
post #13

This was a feature of project gasbuggy (nuclear fracking): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gasbuggy

> It was part of Operation Plowshare, a program designed to find peaceful uses for nuclear explosions. I don’t know how that would ever be possible.

Russians used to use nukes to seal leaking gas wells
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