LPL/Planetary Science Field Trips:

Friday: Inside the NTS

At the entrance to the NTS.

The amazing alpha rope--seemingly ordinary nylon cord keeping the world shielded from alpha particles.

Donning the DOE Anti-C suits.
Danny Boy, 0.42 kilotons detonated in the dry basalt of Checkerboard Mesa. The burst depth was 34m underground and the resultant crater measures 66m across and 19m deep.

Jay shows that the melt glass (black stripe on rock) from the Danny Boy explosion is still incredibly radioactive.

Waiting behind the alpha ropes...

...to go through the decontamination line.

Jen jumps the alpha cord and has to be extra-decontaminated.

"Lord A'mighty, looks like we got ourselves a convoy!"
This was as close as we got to Schooner, 35 kilotons detonated 108m underground. The crater is 260m across and 63m deep, approximately 1/4 the size of Meteor Crater and similar in morphology. Below is the glossy 8x10 of Schooner provided by the NTS PR office.

Created by Barbara A. Cohen