Largest Underground Nuclear Testing Project Cannikin 5 Megatons

This video reviews Project CANNIKIN, a nuclear test conducted on Amchitka Island, Alaska, at11:00 a.m., Bering Standard Time, on November 6, 1971. CANNIKIN, a slightly less-than-fivemegaton 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.

[maxpower-]

Ah yes. I once blew a green peace activists mind when i told him this detonation was the motivating factor for the foundation of his organization

[chadjones]

How can people not like history this is incredible

[turdferg]

The power to move earth like that is so incredible.

[Navyguy]

Buried a mile underground and it still made the ground up heave 25 Ft! It’s hard to fathom the kind of explosive power it took to do that and the fact that this bomb had that power!

[buzaldrin]

Fun facts: The explosion resulted in a vertical ground motion of more than 15 feet (4.6 m) at a distance of 2, 000 feet (610 m) from the borehole, equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 on the Richter scale.

[chasestoudt]

I've actually been to Amchitka and fished in the lake Cannikin created as part of the DOE legacy monitoring program in 2016.

[Belano]

Less than 5 Megatons, well that's reassuring!

[theg.c.]

Love when you label the video with the individual event you're reporting on. Gives the viewer a tell of what's ahead. 👍🏻

[dougg]

Years ago I bought a VCR movie about this shot. May be this one but it had a LOT of footage of ground swell. Amazing
I need to go find that tape

[maughan]

That was incredible. I'd love to have seen something about the men they lowered down the hole to dig out the cavity. But great video. Thank you

[Ougi]

There were 3 underground nuclear tests on Amchitka Island. Long Shot, Milrow, and Cannikin. I worked out there for 3 years; cleaning-up WW2 debris and building a “relocatable, over-the-horizon, backscatter radar station, ” for the Navy...in the early ’80’s. One end of the Island had the “transmitter, ” and the other end had the “receiver.” One side-note: Before we went out there, we were told that there was NO “tritium” in the water supply...because it was well-water. After our 3 year hitch, the Department Of Energy told us...by the way, there IS “tritium” in your water supply!!! The Government LIED to us, just so that Ronald Reagan could have one of his “Star Wars” projects fulfilled!!! Now, all of us who worked on Amchitka are in a D.O.E. database...to see who dies from cancer! It’s sad to think that our own government treats us like a “renewable, natural resource, ” just as long as they get what they want. I do have plenty of fond memories: Scouring every inch of the Island on a Honda Four Trax 4x4, catching Dolly Varden on every cast in Cannikin Lake, and recovering tons of Coke bottles left by the 20, 000 G.I.’s who inhabited the Island during WW2. It definitely was an adventure.

[oceanhome]

The Nuclear era turned a single second into an eternity now even a microsecond is considered a large period of time !

[trashcompactorYT]

It must have been absolutely nerve racking to be lowering a gigantic nuclear warhead into the earth

[dougg]

Imagine the power to move that much earth instantly twenty five feet

[tlamn]

AWESOME! Thank you!

PS: Any chance of an Operation Dominic; Bighorn Shot (Top Three Favourite Fireballs/Clouds) Vid? Anniversary is my BDay, more importantly, it's freaking amazing!
Of course, I know how much work is required and that this request ain't happening, but He Who Dares... LOL!

Great vid and Cheers again, mate! Sry, I'll do a Snack and Hard Liquor Run next time!

[aka_er]

Wow, thanks for sharing 🙏. Interesting that the speaker points out no radiation acitivity. I wonder if it could affect any underground water resources nearby in any manner. Complete lack of any radioactivity is quite strange

[petergray]

Is there any footage of Project Plowshare tests? Principally Projects Gasbuggy, Rullison and Rio Blanco?

[zeus-mtwx]

Sorry but looking back at all the nuke test that all countries did.
It’s amazing that this world still exists.

[dougg]

Yeah the VCR tape I bought of this event in the late 90s has a lot more footage of trailers being tossed about and ground rolling. Also cliff face crumbling

[gooner]

Christ, I could've used some of these to help dig the footings of the last house I it was a bastard!!
To raise the ground by 23 ft whilst buried at that depth just shows you how incredibly powerful these devices are.