Amchitka
Encyclopedia
Amchitka is a volcanic, tectonically
unstable island in the Rat Islands
group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska
. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
. The island is about 68 kilometres (42 mi) long, and from 3 to 6 km (1.9 to 3.7 mi) wide. The area has a maritime climate, with many storms, and mostly overcast skies.
Amchitka was populated for more than 2,500 years by the Aleut people, but has had no permanent population since 1832. The island has been part of the United States since the Alaska Purchase
of 1867. During World War II
, it was used as an airfield by US forces in the Aleutian Islands Campaign.
Amchitka was selected by the United States Atomic Energy Commission
to be the site for underground detonations
of nuclear weapons. Three such tests were carried out: Long Shot, an 80 kt(TNT) blast in 1965; Milrow, a 1 Mt(TNT) blast in 1969; and Cannikin in 1971 – at 5 Mt(TNT), the largest underground test
ever conducted by the United States. The tests were highly controversial, with environmental groups
fearing that the Cannikin explosion, in particular, would cause severe earthquake
s and tsunami
s. Amchitka is no longer used for nuclear testing, although it is monitored for the leakage of radioactive materials
.
to the north and east, and the Pacific Ocean to the south and west.
The eastern part of the island is a lowland plateau, with isolated ponds and gently rolling hills. There is low but abundant vegetation, consisting of mosses, lichens, liverworts, ferns, grasses, sedges, and crowberry
. The center of the island is mountainous, and the western end is barren and vegetation is sparse.
Amchitka has a maritime climate
, often foggy and windswept, with cloud cover 98 percent of the time. While temperatures are moderated by the ocean, storms are frequent. Geologically, the island is volcanic, being a part of a small crustal block on the Aleutian Arc
that is being torn apart by oblique subduction
. It is "one of the least stable tectonic environments in the United States."
Amchitka is said to have been seen and named St. Makarius
by Bering
in 1741, was sighted by Billings
in 1790, and visited by Shishmaref in 1820.
In 1783, Daikokuya Kōdayū
and 15 Japanese castaways landed on Amchitka after drifting for seven months. The castaways were taken care of by Russian employees of Zhigarev and hunted with indigenous people. Six of the castaways died in three years.
According to Kōdayū, islanders received necessities and supplies such as tobacco, ironware, horse- and ox-skins, and cotton in return for hunting otters or seals. The furs brought by indigenous people were divided into thirds between the Russian Empire, Moscow furrier Vassily Yakovlevich Zhigarev (mayor of Moscow in 1795-1798), and Zhigarev's Russian employees. Russian trappers and traders established settlements on the islands, exploiting the indigenous people, whose population on the island quickly fell. In 1784, a major Aleut revolt occurred as Russians killed Oniishin, indigenous chieftain's daughter and the Russian chief's mistress (See: Aleut people#Recorded revolt), and hundreds of Aleuts escaped from Amchitka after being defeated by five Russians. From 1832, the island was never permanently inhabited. The islands were surveyed by the North Pacific Exploring Expedition in 1855, and were included in the Alaska Purchase
of 1867. In 1913, President William Howard Taft
set aside the Aleutian chain, including Amchitka, as a wildlife preserve. The Native
residents of Atka
leased the island for fox hunting in 1920, and continued to use the island until the Japanese
invasion of the western Aleutians in 1942. By the time of World War II, an abandoned Russian fishing village was all that remained.
agreed to move quickly to regain the territory. American planners decided to build a series of airfields to the west of Umnak
, from which bombers could attack the invading forces.
The U.S. Army
established bases at Adak
and 13 other locations. At the War Department's suggestion, an initial reconnaissance of Amchitka was carried out in September 1942, which found that it would be difficult to build an airstrip on the island. Nevertheless, planners decided on December 13 that the airfield "had to be built" to prevent the Japanese from doing the same. A further reconnaissance mission visited Amchitka from 17 to 19 December, and reported that a fighter strip could be built in two to three weeks, and a main airfield in three to four months. The plan was approved and began in 1942.
American forces made an unopposed landing on Amchitka on January 12, 1943, although the destroyer grounded and sank with the loss of 14 lives. Despite facing difficult weather conditions and bombing from the Japanese,
the airfield was usable by February 16. The Alaska Command was now 80 km (50 mi) away from their target, Kiska
. The military eventually built numerous buildings, roads, and a total of three airstrips on the island, some of which would later be renovated and used by the Atomic Energy Commission
. At its peak, the occupancy of Amchitka reached 15,000 troops.
The Aleutian Islands campaign
was successfully completed on August 24, 1943. In that month, a strategic intercept station was established on the island, which remained until February 1945. The Army abandoned the site in August 1950. The site later hosted an Air Force weather station in the 1950s, a White Alice
telecommunication system in 1959 to 1961, and a temporary relay station in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Department of Defense
initially considered the island for nuclear testing planned for 1951. Requiring information about the cratering potential of nuclear weapon
s, plans were made to detonate two 20 kt(TNT) devices. After approximately 34 test holes had been drilled, the site was deemed unsuitable, and the project was moved to the Nevada test site
.
In the late 1950s, scientists realized that improved seismological
knowledge was necessary for the detection of Soviet
underground nuclear explosions
. The 1.7 kt(TNT) "Rainier" test (part of Operation Plumbbob
, performed in Nevada) produced strong seismic signals, but looked much like an ordinary earthquake. In 1959, Dr. James R. Killian
, the Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, formed the Panel on Seismic Improvement (which subsequently recommended the program that came to be known as Vela Uniform
), with the twin goals of improving seismic instruments and deploying them globally, and researching in more depth the seismic effects of nuclear explosions. The project was subsequently initiated by the Eisenhower
administration.
Together with the Atomic Energy Commission, the DoD began assessing Amchitka for use as part of the Vela Uniform tests.
To conduct the Vela Uniform test Long Shot, the Department of Defense occupied Amchitka from 1964 to 1966, with the AEC providing the device, measuring instruments, and scientific support. The goal was "to determine the behavior and characteristics of seismic signals generated by nuclear detonations and to differentiate them from seismic signals generated by naturally occurring earthquakes."
Although it would not be publicly announced until March 18, 1965, senior Alaskan officials were notified the previous February. After the devastating Great Alaska Earthquake
of March 27, 1964, the governor expressed concern about the psychological effects of the test on the populace. He was quickly reassured.
Long Shot was detonated on October 29, 1965, and the yield was 80 kt(TNT). It was the first underground test in a remote area, and the first test managed by the DoD. While there was no surface collapse, tritium
and krypton
were found at the surface following the test; this was not made public until 1969.
of 1 to-.
The shockwave reached the surface with an acceleration of over 35 g (340 m/s2), causing a dome of the Earth's surface, approximately 3 km (2 mi) in radius, to rise about 5 metres (16.4 ft). The blast "turned the surrounding sea to froth" and "forced geysers of mud and water from local streams and lakes 50 feet (15 m) into the air". A "surface collapse feature", also known as a subsidence crater, was formed by material collapsing into the cavity formed by the explosion.
Cannikin was intended to test the design of the Spartan
anti-ballistic missile
(ABM) interceptor – a high-yield warhead that "produced copious amounts of x-rays and minimized fission output and debris to prevent blackout of ABM radar systems." The test would "measure the yield of the device, measure the x-ray flux and spectrum, and assure deployment of a reliable design."
was organized at a meeting in Vancouver. On the agenda was whether to fight another blast at the island, or whether to expand their efforts to fight all perceived threats against the environment. As he was leaving, one man gave the traditional farewell of the peace-activist movement, "Peace." "Make it a green peace." replied another member. The Committee would later become Greenpeace
.
The Committee's name referred to predictions made by a Vancouver journalist named Bob Hunter
, later to become Greenpeace member 000. He wrote that the test would cause earthquakes and a tsunami. The AEC considered the likelihood of the test triggering a severe earthquake "very unlikely", unless one was already imminent on a nearby fault, and considered a tsunami "even more unlikely".
Others disagreed. Russell Train, then Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality
, argued that "experience with Milrow ... does not provide a sure basis for extrapolation. In the highly nonlinear phenomena involved in earthquake generation, there may be a threshold value of the strain that must be exceeded prior to initiation of a large earthquake. ... The underground explosion could serve as the first domino of the row of dominoes leading to a major earthquake. ... as in the case of earthquakes it is not possible at this time to assess quantitatively the probability of a tsunami following the explosion."
In July 1971, a group called the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility filed suit against the AEC, asking the court to stop the test. The suit was unsuccessful, with the Supreme Court denying the injunction by 4 votes to 3, and Richard Nixon
personally authorized the $200 million test, in spite of objections from Japan, Peru, and Sweden. The Don't Make A Wave Committee chartered a boat, in which they had intended to sail to the island in protest, but due to weather conditions they were unable to reach their destination.
(1971–1972) underground nuclear test series. The announced yield was 5 megatons (21 PJ) – the largest underground nuclear test in US history. (Estimates for the precise yield range from 4.4 to 5.2 megatons or 18 to 22 PJ). The ground lifted 20 feet (6 m), caused by an explosive force almost 400 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb
. Subsidence and faulting at the site created a new lake, over a mile wide. The explosion caused a seismic shock of 7.0 on the Richter scale
, causing rockfalls and turf slides of a total of 35000 square feet (3,251.6 m²). Though earthquakes and tsunamis predicted by environmentalists did not occur, a number of small tectonic events did occur in the following weeks, (some registering as high as 4.0 on the richter scale) thought to be due to the interaction of the explosion with local tectonic stresses.
According to wildlife surveys following the Cannikin event by the University of Alaska Fairbanks
, 700–2,000 sea otters were killed by overpressure
s in the Bering Sea as a direct result of the explosion. This survey showed that number of sea otters endangered by the blast was far greater than the Atomic Energy Commission
had predicted.
Concerns have been expressed that new fissures may be opening underground, allowing radioactive materials to leak into the ocean. A 1996 Greenpeace study found that Cannikin was leaking both plutonium
and americium
into the environment,. In 2004, scientific divers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks collected shallow subtidal organisms and reported that "There were no indications of any radioactive leakage, and all that was really wonderful news." Similar findings are reported by a 2006 study, which found that levels of plutonium "were very small and not significant biologically".
The Department of Energy continues to monitor the site as part of their remediation program. This is expected to continue until 2025, after which the site is intended to become a restricted access wildlife preserve.
Plate tectonics
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
unstable island in the Rat Islands
Rat Islands
The Rat Islands are a volcanic group of islands in the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska, between Buldir Island and the Near Islands group to its west, and Amchitka Pass and the Andreanof Islands group to its east, at about ....
group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge comprising 2,400 islands, headlands, rocks, islets, spires and reefs in Alaska, with a total area of , of which is wilderness)...
. The island is about 68 kilometres (42 mi) long, and from 3 to 6 km (1.9 to 3.7 mi) wide. The area has a maritime climate, with many storms, and mostly overcast skies.
Amchitka was populated for more than 2,500 years by the Aleut people, but has had no permanent population since 1832. The island has been part of the United States since the Alaska Purchase
Alaska purchase
The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from Russia in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained of new United States territory...
of 1867. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, it was used as an airfield by US forces in the Aleutian Islands Campaign.
Amchitka was selected by the United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
to be the site for underground detonations
Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
of nuclear weapons. Three such tests were carried out: Long Shot, an 80 kt(TNT) blast in 1965; Milrow, a 1 Mt(TNT) blast in 1969; and Cannikin in 1971 – at 5 Mt(TNT), the largest underground test
Underground nuclear testing
Underground nuclear testing refers to test detonations of nuclear weapons that are performed underground. When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to the atmosphere....
ever conducted by the United States. The tests were highly controversial, with environmental groups
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
fearing that the Cannikin explosion, in particular, would cause severe earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s and tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
s. Amchitka is no longer used for nuclear testing, although it is monitored for the leakage of radioactive materials
Radioactive contamination
Radioactive contamination, also called radiological contamination, is radioactive substances on surfaces, or within solids, liquids or gases , where their presence is unintended or undesirable, or the process giving rise to their presence in such places...
.
Geography
Amchitka is the southernmost of the Rat Islands group in the Aleutian Chain, located between 51°21′N 178°37′E and 51°39′N 179°29′E. It is bounded by the Bering SeaBering Sea
The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves....
to the north and east, and the Pacific Ocean to the south and west.
The eastern part of the island is a lowland plateau, with isolated ponds and gently rolling hills. There is low but abundant vegetation, consisting of mosses, lichens, liverworts, ferns, grasses, sedges, and crowberry
Crowberry
Crowberry is a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit. They are commonly found in the northern hemisphere, from temperate to subarctic climates, and also in the Southern Andes of South America and on the South Atlantic islands of South Georgia, the Falklands and Tristan da...
. The center of the island is mountainous, and the western end is barren and vegetation is sparse.
Amchitka has a maritime climate
Oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also called marine west coast climate, maritime climate, Cascadian climate and British climate for Köppen climate classification Cfb and subtropical highland for Köppen Cfb or Cwb, is a type of climate typically found along the west coasts at the middle latitudes of some of the...
, often foggy and windswept, with cloud cover 98 percent of the time. While temperatures are moderated by the ocean, storms are frequent. Geologically, the island is volcanic, being a part of a small crustal block on the Aleutian Arc
Aleutian Arc
The Aleutian Arc is a large volcanic arc in the U.S. state of Alaska. It consists of a number of active and dormant volcanoes that have formed as a result of subduction along the Aleutian Trench...
that is being torn apart by oblique subduction
Subduction
In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. These 3D regions of mantle downwellings are known as "Subduction Zones"...
. It is "one of the least stable tectonic environments in the United States."
Early history
The human history of Amchitka dates back at least 2,500 years, with the Aleut people. Human remains, thought to be of an Aleut dating from about 1000 AD, were discovered in 1980.Amchitka is said to have been seen and named St. Makarius
Macarius of Egypt
Macarius of Egypt was an Egyptian Christian monk and hermit. He is also known as Macarius the Elder, Macarius the Great and The Lamp of the Desert.-Life:...
by Bering
Vitus Bering
Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...
in 1741, was sighted by Billings
Joseph Billings
Joseph Billings was an English navigator and explorer who spent the most significant part of his life in Russian service.In 1785, the Russian government of Catherine II commissioned a new expedition in search for the Northeast Passage, led by English officer Joseph Billings, who had previously...
in 1790, and visited by Shishmaref in 1820.
In 1783, Daikokuya Kōdayū
Daikokuya Kōdayū
was a Japanese castaway who spent eleven years in Russia.His ship landed at Amchitka, Aleutian Islands. They managed to escape to the Russian mainland and had Catherine the Great allow them to go back to Japan by Kirill Laxman's effort with Alexander Bezborodko and Alexander Vorontsov...
and 15 Japanese castaways landed on Amchitka after drifting for seven months. The castaways were taken care of by Russian employees of Zhigarev and hunted with indigenous people. Six of the castaways died in three years.
According to Kōdayū, islanders received necessities and supplies such as tobacco, ironware, horse- and ox-skins, and cotton in return for hunting otters or seals. The furs brought by indigenous people were divided into thirds between the Russian Empire, Moscow furrier Vassily Yakovlevich Zhigarev (mayor of Moscow in 1795-1798), and Zhigarev's Russian employees. Russian trappers and traders established settlements on the islands, exploiting the indigenous people, whose population on the island quickly fell. In 1784, a major Aleut revolt occurred as Russians killed Oniishin, indigenous chieftain's daughter and the Russian chief's mistress (See: Aleut people#Recorded revolt), and hundreds of Aleuts escaped from Amchitka after being defeated by five Russians. From 1832, the island was never permanently inhabited. The islands were surveyed by the North Pacific Exploring Expedition in 1855, and were included in the Alaska Purchase
Alaska purchase
The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from Russia in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained of new United States territory...
of 1867. In 1913, President William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
set aside the Aleutian chain, including Amchitka, as a wildlife preserve. The Native
Alaska Natives
Alaska Natives are the indigenous peoples of Alaska. They include: Aleut, Inuit, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Eyak, and a number of Northern Athabaskan cultures.-History:In 1912 the Alaska Native Brotherhood was founded...
residents of Atka
Atka Island
Atka Island is the largest island in the Andreanof Islands of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. The island is east of Adak Island. It is long and wide with a land area of , making it the 22nd largest island in the United States. The northeast of Atka Island contains the Korovin volcano which...
leased the island for fox hunting in 1920, and continued to use the island until the Japanese
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
invasion of the western Aleutians in 1942. By the time of World War II, an abandoned Russian fishing village was all that remained.
World War II
In June 1942, the Japanese occupied some of the western Aleutian islands, and hoped to occupy Amchitka. Eager to remove the Japanese, the Joint Chiefs of StaffJoint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the United States Department of Defense who advise the Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the President on military matters...
agreed to move quickly to regain the territory. American planners decided to build a series of airfields to the west of Umnak
Umnak
Umnak is one of the Fox Islands of the Aleutian Islands. With of land area, it is the third largest island in the Aleutian archipelago and the 19th largest island in the United States. The island is home to a large volcanic caldera on Mount Okmok and is separated from Unalaska Island by Umnak Pass...
, from which bombers could attack the invading forces.
The U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
established bases at Adak
Adak Island
Adak Island is an island near the western extent of the Andreanof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Alaska's southernmost town, Adak, is located on the island...
and 13 other locations. At the War Department's suggestion, an initial reconnaissance of Amchitka was carried out in September 1942, which found that it would be difficult to build an airstrip on the island. Nevertheless, planners decided on December 13 that the airfield "had to be built" to prevent the Japanese from doing the same. A further reconnaissance mission visited Amchitka from 17 to 19 December, and reported that a fighter strip could be built in two to three weeks, and a main airfield in three to four months. The plan was approved and began in 1942.
American forces made an unopposed landing on Amchitka on January 12, 1943, although the destroyer grounded and sank with the loss of 14 lives. Despite facing difficult weather conditions and bombing from the Japanese,
the airfield was usable by February 16. The Alaska Command was now 80 km (50 mi) away from their target, Kiska
Kiska
Kiska is an island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska located at . It is about long and varies in width from - Discovery :...
. The military eventually built numerous buildings, roads, and a total of three airstrips on the island, some of which would later be renovated and used by the Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
. At its peak, the occupancy of Amchitka reached 15,000 troops.
The Aleutian Islands campaign
Battle of the Aleutian Islands
The Aleutian Islands Campaign was a struggle over the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska, in the Pacific campaign of World War II starting on 3 June 1942. A small Japanese force occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska, but the remoteness of the islands and the difficulties of weather and terrain meant...
was successfully completed on August 24, 1943. In that month, a strategic intercept station was established on the island, which remained until February 1945. The Army abandoned the site in August 1950. The site later hosted an Air Force weather station in the 1950s, a White Alice
White Alice Communications System
The White Alice Communications System was a United States Air Force telecommunication link system constructed in Alaska during the cold war. It featured tropospheric scatter links and line-of-sight microwave radio links...
telecommunication system in 1959 to 1961, and a temporary relay station in the 1960s and 1970s.
Plans for nuclear testing
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
initially considered the island for nuclear testing planned for 1951. Requiring information about the cratering potential of nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s, plans were made to detonate two 20 kt(TNT) devices. After approximately 34 test holes had been drilled, the site was deemed unsuitable, and the project was moved to the Nevada test site
Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...
.
In the late 1950s, scientists realized that improved seismological
Seismology
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic,...
knowledge was necessary for the detection of Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
underground nuclear explosions
Underground nuclear testing
Underground nuclear testing refers to test detonations of nuclear weapons that are performed underground. When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to the atmosphere....
. The 1.7 kt(TNT) "Rainier" test (part of Operation Plumbbob
Operation Plumbbob
Operation Plumbbob was a series of nuclear tests conducted between May 28 and October 7, 1957, at the Nevada Test Site, following Operation Redwing, and preceding Operation Hardtack I...
, performed in Nevada) produced strong seismic signals, but looked much like an ordinary earthquake. In 1959, Dr. James R. Killian
James Rhyne Killian
Dr. James Rhyne Killian, Jr. was the 10th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from 1948 until 1959.-Career:...
, the Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, formed the Panel on Seismic Improvement (which subsequently recommended the program that came to be known as Vela Uniform
Vela Uniform
Vela Uniform was an element of Project Vela conducted jointly by the United States Department of Energy and the Advanced Research Projects Agency...
), with the twin goals of improving seismic instruments and deploying them globally, and researching in more depth the seismic effects of nuclear explosions. The project was subsequently initiated by the Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
administration.
Together with the Atomic Energy Commission, the DoD began assessing Amchitka for use as part of the Vela Uniform tests.
Long Shot test
Although it would not be publicly announced until March 18, 1965, senior Alaskan officials were notified the previous February. After the devastating Great Alaska Earthquake
Good Friday Earthquake
The 1964 Alaska earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan Earthquake, the Portage Earthquake and the Good Friday Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that began at 5:36 P.M. AST on Good Friday, March 27, 1964...
of March 27, 1964, the governor expressed concern about the psychological effects of the test on the populace. He was quickly reassured.
Long Shot was detonated on October 29, 1965, and the yield was 80 kt(TNT). It was the first underground test in a remote area, and the first test managed by the DoD. While there was no surface collapse, tritium
Tritium
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The nucleus of tritium contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of protium contains one proton and no neutrons...
and krypton
Krypton
Krypton is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and atomic number 36. It is a member of Group 18 and Period 4 elements. A colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas, krypton occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere, is isolated by fractionally distilling liquified air, and is often used with other...
were found at the surface following the test; this was not made public until 1969.
Milrow and Cannikin tests
Though performed as part of the Nuclear Weapons Testing Program, "[the] purpose of the Milrow test was to test an island, not a weapon." It was a "calibration shot", intended to produce data from which the impact of larger explosions could be predicted, and specifically, to determine whether the planned Cannikin detonation could be performed safely. Milrow was detonated on October 2, 1969, with an approximate yieldNuclear weapon yield
The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy discharged when a nuclear weapon is detonated, expressed usually in the equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene , either in kilotons or megatons , but sometimes also in terajoules...
of 1 to-.
The shockwave reached the surface with an acceleration of over 35 g (340 m/s2), causing a dome of the Earth's surface, approximately 3 km (2 mi) in radius, to rise about 5 metres (16.4 ft). The blast "turned the surrounding sea to froth" and "forced geysers of mud and water from local streams and lakes 50 feet (15 m) into the air". A "surface collapse feature", also known as a subsidence crater, was formed by material collapsing into the cavity formed by the explosion.
Cannikin was intended to test the design of the Spartan
LIM-49A Spartan
The LIM-49A Spartan was a United States Army anti-ballistic missile, whose warheads were developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It was a three-stage, solid-fuel surface-to-air missile that carried a W71 thermonuclear warhead with a lethal radius of up to 30 miles to intercept...
anti-ballistic missile
Anti-ballistic missile
An anti-ballistic missile is a missile designed to counter ballistic missiles .A ballistic missile is used to deliver nuclear, chemical, biological or conventional warheads in a ballistic flight trajectory. The term "anti-ballistic missile" describes any antimissile system designed to counter...
(ABM) interceptor – a high-yield warhead that "produced copious amounts of x-rays and minimized fission output and debris to prevent blackout of ABM radar systems." The test would "measure the yield of the device, measure the x-ray flux and spectrum, and assure deployment of a reliable design."
Controversy
A few days after the Milrow test, the Don't Make A Wave CommitteeDon't Make a Wave Committee
The Don't Make a Wave Committee was the name of the anti-nuclear organization which later evolved into Greenpeace, a global environmental organization...
was organized at a meeting in Vancouver. On the agenda was whether to fight another blast at the island, or whether to expand their efforts to fight all perceived threats against the environment. As he was leaving, one man gave the traditional farewell of the peace-activist movement, "Peace." "Make it a green peace." replied another member. The Committee would later become Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
.
The Committee's name referred to predictions made by a Vancouver journalist named Bob Hunter
Robert Hunter (journalist)
Robert Lorne Hunter was a Canadian environmentalist, journalist, author and politician. A member of the Don't Make a Wave Committee in 1969 with Dorothy and Irving Stowe, Marie and Jim Bohlen, and Ben and Dorothy Metcalfe...
, later to become Greenpeace member 000. He wrote that the test would cause earthquakes and a tsunami. The AEC considered the likelihood of the test triggering a severe earthquake "very unlikely", unless one was already imminent on a nearby fault, and considered a tsunami "even more unlikely".
Others disagreed. Russell Train, then Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality
Council on Environmental Quality
The Council on Environmental Quality is a division of the Executive Office of the President that coordinates federal environmental efforts in the United States and works closely with agencies and other White House offices in the development of environmental and energy policies and initiatives...
, argued that "experience with Milrow ... does not provide a sure basis for extrapolation. In the highly nonlinear phenomena involved in earthquake generation, there may be a threshold value of the strain that must be exceeded prior to initiation of a large earthquake. ... The underground explosion could serve as the first domino of the row of dominoes leading to a major earthquake. ... as in the case of earthquakes it is not possible at this time to assess quantitatively the probability of a tsunami following the explosion."
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
personally authorized the $200 million test, in spite of objections from Japan, Peru, and Sweden. The Don't Make A Wave Committee chartered a boat, in which they had intended to sail to the island in protest, but due to weather conditions they were unable to reach their destination.
Cannikin tested
Cannikin was detonated on November 6, 1971, as the thirteenth test of the Operation GrommetOperation Grommet
Operation Grommet was a series of 34 nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site in 1971 and 1972 including one in Alaska in 1971. These tests followed the Emery series and preceded Toggle....
(1971–1972) underground nuclear test series. The announced yield was 5 megatons (21 PJ) – the largest underground nuclear test in US history. (Estimates for the precise yield range from 4.4 to 5.2 megatons or 18 to 22 PJ). The ground lifted 20 feet (6 m), caused by an explosive force almost 400 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb
Little Boy
"Little Boy" was the codename of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon...
. Subsidence and faulting at the site created a new lake, over a mile wide. The explosion caused a seismic shock of 7.0 on the Richter scale
Richter magnitude scale
The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....
, causing rockfalls and turf slides of a total of 35000 square feet (3,251.6 m²). Though earthquakes and tsunamis predicted by environmentalists did not occur, a number of small tectonic events did occur in the following weeks, (some registering as high as 4.0 on the richter scale) thought to be due to the interaction of the explosion with local tectonic stresses.
According to wildlife surveys following the Cannikin event by the University of Alaska Fairbanks
University of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks, located in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska System, and is abbreviated as Alaska or UAF....
, 700–2,000 sea otters were killed by overpressure
Overpressure
The term Overpressure is applied to a pressure difference, relative to a "normal" or "ambient" pressure, in various circumstances:* In engineering: the pressure difference over the wall thickness of a pressure vessel...
s in the Bering Sea as a direct result of the explosion. This survey showed that number of sea otters endangered by the blast was far greater than the Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
had predicted.
1973 and beyond
The AEC withdrew from the island in 1973, though scientists continue to visit the island for monitoring purposes. In 2001, the DoE returned to the site to remove environmental contamination. Drilling mud pits were stabilized by mixing with clean soil, covering with a polyester membrane, topped with soil and re-seeded.Concerns have been expressed that new fissures may be opening underground, allowing radioactive materials to leak into the ocean. A 1996 Greenpeace study found that Cannikin was leaking both plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
and americium
Americium
Americium is a synthetic element that has the symbol Am and atomic number 95. This transuranic element of the actinide series is located in the periodic table below the lanthanide element europium, and thus by analogy was named after another continent, America.Americium was first produced in 1944...
into the environment,. In 2004, scientific divers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks collected shallow subtidal organisms and reported that "There were no indications of any radioactive leakage, and all that was really wonderful news." Similar findings are reported by a 2006 study, which found that levels of plutonium "were very small and not significant biologically".
The Department of Energy continues to monitor the site as part of their remediation program. This is expected to continue until 2025, after which the site is intended to become a restricted access wildlife preserve.
| Name | Date (GMT) | Location | Yield | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Shot | 21:00, October 29, 1965 | 51.43655°N 179.17976°E | 80 kt(TNT) | 2343 ft (714 m) shaft |
| Milrow | 22:06, October 2, 1969 | 51.41559°N 179.17992°E | ~ 1 Mt(TNT) | 4002 ft (1,220 m) shaft |
| Cannikin | 22:00, November 6, 1971 | 51.46961°N 179.10335°E | < 5 Mt(TNT) | 6104 ft (1,860 m) shaft |
Further reading
- Hunter, Robert. The Greenpeace to Amchitka An Environmental Odyssey. Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp PressArsenal Pulp PressArsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, and is noted for founding the annual Three-Day Novel Contest .Authors who have been published by Arsenal Pulp ...
, 2004. ISBN 1-55152-178-4 - Kohlhoff, Dean. Amchitka and the Bomb Nuclear Testing in Alaska. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2002. ISBN 0-295-98255-1
- Sense, Richard G., and Roger J. Desautels. Amchitka Archaeology Progress Reports. Las Vegas, Nev: Holmes & Narver, Inc.?, 1970.
External links
- Home page of USS Worden (DD 352) A U.S. Navy destroyer that sank during the landing at Amchitka, January 12, 1943. Contains eyewitness accounts of the landings.
- The following links are to Department of Energy films about the Amitchka test facility. The videos include footage of the tests.