Nearest city Mercury, Nevada Address Mercury, NV 89023, USA Added to NRHP 21 March 1994 | NRHP Reference # 94000183 Area 11 ha | |
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Location Area 10, Nevada Test Site | ||
Sedan Crater is the result of the Sedan nuclear test and is located within the Nevada Test Site, 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Groom Lake, Nevada (Area 51). The crater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 21, 1994. The crater is a man-made object that can be seen from earth orbit with the unaided eye.
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The crater is the result of the displacement of 12,000,000 short tons (11,000,000 t) of earth. Over 10,000 visitors per year visit the crater through free monthly tours offered by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office. Its closest Soviet counterpart is the slightly wider Chagan crater which filled in to create Lake Chagan.
History and description
The 1,280 by 320 ft (390 by 100 m) crater was created on July 6, 1962 by a 104-kiloton-of-TNT (440 TJ) thermonuclear explosion. The device was buried 635 feet (194 m) below the desert floor in Area 10 of Yucca Flat and was the largest cratering shot in the Plowshare Program. The explosion created fallout that affected more US residents than any other nuclear test, exposing more than 13 million people to radiation and marked the end of the program. Within 7 months of the excavation, the bottom of the crater could be safely walked upon with no protective clothing and photographs were taken.
Because the craters at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) have features similar to the topography of Moon craters, 11 of the 12 American astronauts who walked on the moon trained in Nevada before their missions.
Russian thistle, also known as tumbleweed, is the primary plant species along with some grasses. Analysis in 1993 observed that the original perennial shrubs once living there had shown no recovery.