Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film #41

0800041 - Project Cannikin Review - 1971 - 13:00 - Color - This video reviews Project CANNIKIN, a nuclear test conducted on Amchitka Island, Alaska, at 11:00 a.m., Bering Standard Time, on November 6, 1971. CANNIKIN, a slightly less-than-five-megaton device, was the largest underground nuclear test conducted in the United States. CANNIKIN was conducted to proof test a warhead for the Spartan missile, a Safeguard Ballistic Missile Defense Program.

The video shows the nuclear device and instrumentation canister being lowered into the shaft, detonation sequences, and test effects. A long-range view of water turbulence after the detonation is shown, but no tsunami or large ocean wave was observed or recorded. Numerous ground shock waves are shown at normal speed and as seen by high-speed, slow-motion cameras located at various sites on the island. Surface effects at ground zero and other island locations were filmed one day after the test. Approximately 38 hours after the test, a subsidence crater, approximately 1.5 miles in diameter and 55 feet deep, began to form.

Many scenes in the video have no sound intentionally; no material was deleted.

The three underground nuclear tests conducted on Amchitka Island, Alaska, were as follows:

LONG SHOT, October 29, 1965, shaft, Vela Uniform Project, approximately 80 kilotons
MILROW October 2, 1969, shaft, weapons related, approximately 1 megaton (Mt)
CANNIKIN, November 6, 1971, shaft, weapons related, less than 5 Mt

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Nukes
• Nuclear
• weapons
• WMD
• radiation
• radioactive
• testing
• warhead
• downwinders
• atomic
• cancer

[crockigater2]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that was no fireball sticking out of the ground, that was a photographic glitch or disturbance envolving the camera station's reaction to the intense shockwave.

[daveeyes]

It was in the close vicinity of 5 megaton.

This video is strangely incomplete. I've seen better ones about this event.

Effort was made to prevent such large effects from Cannikan. In particular, a large, spherical chamber was mined outwards, starting at about 6,000 feet. The warhead was detonated in the middle of the spherical chamber, possibly with shock absorbent material. It didn't work that well; as one person says, "It really coupled to the ground".

[Jospehporta]

@crockigater2 It was a flash bulb set off when the detonation was, so as they could time of the shockwaves hitting the surface.

[ZiddersRooFurry]

@muzzmatrix This made me spray milk through my nose. Thank you lol

[marmaladekamikaze]

@daveeyes

@daveeyes

At 7:12 the objects appear to be something akin to a 'vertical impulse measurement fixture' and not - shock mitigation mounts as the narrator suggests, is he right? My memory is telling me that a lot of the measurements from these impulse instruments, unfortunately, turned out to be pretty useless, as the shock was higher than expected, breaking the instruments...I can't remember where I read this, its contrary to what is stated at 10:40. Any help would be appreciated!

[muzzmatrix]

Why didn't they just test it at a real trailer park? "93.5% of all test subjects were through from their couches & all automobiles were knocked off their blocks."

[incertaesedis54]

@hdwebsites that would take a bomb a couple times bigger than "the Tsar" to get those results

[sam23696]

i wouldnt stand there around the missile while it was blowing in the wind like that

[horeslayer]

@BynDStyleZ we tested it on goats, close enough.

[colliertng]

Project CANNIKIN is the Nuclear Test that lead to the Founding of Greenpeace. This Nuclear Test Scared The HELL Out Of Me!!!! LOL

[esb420]

yawn... boom!

[DartNeroz]

è interessante vedere come nel terreno sottostante gli edifici prima arrivino le onde P (verticali) poi le onde S (orizzontali). I Movimenti successivi sono dovuti a onde di superficie. Misurando il tempo trasorso tra l'arrivo delle onde P e l'arrivo delle onde S nel video si può risalire alla distanza tra gli edifici e il luogo dell'esplosione.