Project Plowshare Nuclear Earthcache EarthCache
Project Plowshare Nuclear Earthcache
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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in our disclaimer.
As an earthcache, there is no “box” or “container” to discover. Rather, with this cache, you discover something about the geology of the area. For more info, consult www.earthcache.org
For paperless cachers, the logging requirements are at the beginning of the description.
This earthcache works best if you are traveling EAST on I-40. Stop at the Ludlow Exit for the initial stop, then travel east towards Needles, through the Bristol Mountains mountain pass. IF YOU ARE TRAVELING WEST, read the description and do logging requirement # > BEFORE you reach Ludlow in order to save time. Exits are far apart!
Logging Requirements:
Send the answers to #1-#6 to me through my geocaching profile. DO NOT post the answers to any logging requirements on this site.
1. List the name “GC**** Project Plowshare Nuclear Earthcache” in the first line of your email. Also, list the number of people in your group.
To prove you've been there:
2. In the description below, there are two blanks from the Commemorative Plaque at cords. What words belong in the spaces?
3. Do ONE of the following from Ludlow: 1) Post a picture of yourself and/or your GPS with your log that shows the cafe / mining rail cars in the background. DO NOT show any of the pertinent information panels in your picture or your log may be deleted. 2) Who placed the information panel in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, and on what date was it placed?
Geological Education Logging Requirements:
4. As you examine the mountain range to the east, the highest point on the road is approximately 3380 ft elevation. What is the elevation at this point, and what is the difference in elevation?
5. As you travel east of Ludlow, (N 34 43.996 W115 52.214 is near the top of the pass on I-40) notice the average HEIGHT of the roadcuts. How does the average size of these roadcuts differ from the possible plan if nuclear energy had created the roadbed for I-40?
6. What might have been some the advantages and disadvantages GEOLOGICALLY and commercially if nuclear energy had been used on this pass you travel on I-40?
NOTE: IF you are doing the Route 66 series POWERTRAIL. It is easiest to complete #5, #6 if you get on the Interstate in Needles and head WEST from there through the pass back to Ludlow. Of course, you can also shortcut on the highway that goes from Joshua Tree to the Interstate, and then turn WEST onto the interstate, but you'll still have 300 Powertrail caches (approx.) that are EAST of your present location! So, go get the powertrail then finish this one AT THE END!
I will only respond if you have incomplete logging requirements. Go ahead and log your cache
History:
Project Plowshare Plaque –
With the end of World War II and the onset of the Cold War, the United States embarked on an ambitious program to ensure the nation's preeminence in the nuclear arms race. To this end,__________________ (see logging requirement #2) and the Atomic Energy Commission detonated hundreds of nuclear devices underwater, underground, and in the atmosphere. Weapons development remained paramount, but the AEC also held a mandate to develop peaceful uses for atomic power. In 1937 California's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory launched an experimental program called Operation Plowshare to use nuclear energy for such applications as power plants, ______________(see logging requirement #2), mining, and the extraction of oil and natural gas, and for the excavation of canals, harbors and roadways. Under Plowshare, a 1963 feasibility study was conducted for the Project Carryall, a plan to realign the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, and provide a route for Interstate 40. 23 explosions, totaling 1.8 megatons were to be used to excavate a 2-mile cut up to 350 feet deep through the Bristol Mountains east of Ludlow, and remove 60 million cubic yards of rock. Despite numerous assurances of safety from the AEC, obvious environmental and health concerns over this and other Plowshare projects caused several postponements, and in 1968 the project was dropped completely. 28 nuclear tests were conducted under Operation Plowshare before its termination in 1975.
Geology:
The Bristol Mountains are found in the Mojave Desert of California, USA, just west of Mojave National Preserve. The range, which reaches an elevation of 3,874 feet (1,181 m), is located in San Bernardino County, and crosses Interstate 40 between Ludlow and the Granite Mountains. At the southern end of the range lies the town of Amboy, the Amboy Crater, and Bristol Dry Lake.
The Bristol Mountains are composed of Granite. These granitic rocks have eroded into unusual rounded shapes that include spires, perched boulders, and curved cliff faces, especially in the nearby Granite Mountains part of the Mojave Desert mountain chains.
Granitic rocks represent the roots of ancient continental-margin volcanic systems. Most of the granitic rock in the Mojave Desert is late Mesozoic in age. The granites formed at depth within a volcanically active mountain range comparable in geologic setting to the Andes chain in South America.
The granitoids formed by the slow cooling and solidification of molten magma bodies that developed above sinking slabs of oceanic crust overridden by the edge of the continent. The reason the mountains don't look anything like the mountains around Lake Tahoe OR the Andes (MUCH less rugged) is because they were exposed to the extreme winds and temperatures of this desert area for a very long time!
However, the fact that the mountains are made of granite means that they are very hard and thus would have created a great engineering challenge for those attempting to lay I-40 across them. While the Bristol Mountains are lower than other area ranges, there was still the need
Notice the “pattern” of blasting when dynamite is used in the rocks as you travel east / west. Notice the “regularity” of dynamite “channels” and the resulting “square sided” roadcut walls. Several tons of Dynamite were used in these roadcuts in relatively controlled conditions.
Compare that to the description below concerning Project Plowshare:
Many of the Plowshare shots sought to determine the efficacy of nuclear devices in endeavors of excavation, making these devices such as were awarded superlativity among all human endeavors by Thomas Hobbes as “instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force.” The most publicized Plowshare event was the Sedan shot conducted under Operation Storax in 1962. The blast yielded 104 kilotons and displaced 12 million short tons of soil. The resulting crater is 320 feet deep and 1280 feet wide, whereas the device itself measured 38 inches in length and 17.1 inches in diameter. The crater is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
As a counterpoint, in a Journal called “Nuclear Geology” in 1969 nuclear scientist L.J. Circeo Jr. wrote:
“Nuclear excavation appears to be an economical, practical and beneficial utilization of nuclear explosives. However, up to the present time, the technical, political and psychological implications of this application have presented a formidable barrier to its general acceptance.
Nuclear cratering technology has been developed to the point where meaningful predictions of crater and channel sizes in selected media can be made with confidence. Continuing research is underway to extend basic cratering knowledge to saturated, fine-grained, and stratified media. Significant advances have been made in the evaluation of the magnitude and extent of the potential safety hazards associated with an underground nuclear cratering detonation.
The state of the art of nuclear excavation is such that many projects appear feasible at the present time. The most apparent applications are concerned with the excavation of harbors, reservoirs, canals, and aggregate production. Nuclear excavation techniques provide a method of alleviating potentially catastrophic situations which could result from floods, landslides, and volcanoes, where all other measures would be less effective.
The development of nuclear excavation into a standard engineering tool will be determined by factors not related entirely to its technical feasibility. The various political, social, and emotional pressures involved in its use will weigh heavily in its ultimate acceptance. The success of contained underground detonations for mining applications will significantly affect the future of nuclear excavation.”
Congrads to CraigsOutside for First To Finish logging requirements (FTF)
Resources:
Circeo, L.J., Jr. Engineering Geology Volume 3, Issue 1, January 1969, Pages 5-59.
Fallout Asthetics (visit link)
“Bristol Mountains” and “Granite Mountains” and “Mojave Desert” (visit link)
BLM.gov “Bristol Mountains Wilderness” (visit link)
NPS Geology Field Notes – Mojave Desert Area – (visit link)
Information Panel at cords
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx rnfg!