nuclear explosion

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The topic nuclear explosion is discussed in the following articles:


  • TITLE: warning system (military technology)
    SECTION: Detection of nuclear explosions
    In 1963 a treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater was signed. Each signatory nation was to provide monitoring. A direct consequence was the development and construction of a wide variety of devices to monitor nuclear explosions.

infrasonic waves

  • TITLE: infrasonics (physics)
    ...In many cases, the most severe shock from an earthquake is preceded by smaller shocks, which can be detected by seismographs and provide advance warning of the greater shock to come. Underground nuclear explosions also produce P-waves, allowing them to be monitored from any point in the world if they are of sufficient intensity. The development of extremely sensitive detectors to monitor...

isotopes of transuranium elements

  • TITLE: transuranium element (chemical element)
    SECTION: Synthesis of transuranium elements
    Heavy isotopes of some transuranium elements are also produced in nuclear explosions. Typically, in such events, a uranium target is bombarded by a high number of fast (high-energy) neutrons for a small fraction of a second, a process known as rapid-neutron capture, or the r-process (in contrast to the slow-neutron capture, or s-process, described above). Underground detonations...

nuclear fission

  • TITLE: nuclear fission (physics)
    SECTION: Fission chain reactions and their control
    ...between steps in the chain as short as possible so that many fissions occur and a large amount of energy is generated within a brief period (∼10-7 second) to produce a devastating explosion. If one kilogram of uranium-235 were to fission, the energy released would be equivalent to the explosion of 20,000 tons of the chemical explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT). In a controlled...


  • TITLE: radioactivity
    SECTION: Occurrence of radioactivity
    ...the result of cosmic ray bombardments during their history outside the Earth’s atmospheric shield. Activities as short-lived as 35-day argon-37 have been measured in fresh falls of meteorites. Nuclear explosions since 1945 have injected additional radioactivities into the environment, consisting of both nuclear fission products and secondary products formed by the action of neutrons from...


  • TITLE: seismograph
    SECTION: Applications of the seismograph
    Seismographs are used for detecting remote nuclear underground tests. In this activity, the relatively faint seismic waves generated by an underground explosion must be distinguished from natural tremors. If the seismic waves generated by an explosive charge are recorded by sensitive seismographs installed at various points in the neighbourhood of the explosion, the underground structure of the...
  • TITLE: earthquake (geology)
    SECTION: Seismology and nuclear explosions

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