This is what nuke testing did to a patch of desert in Nevada
Testing at Nevada Test Site (NTS) took place between 1951 and 1992. So 41 years. There were only 23 Plowshares shots at NTS out of 928 total tests, so that's only about 2% of all of the tests.
Interestingly, a large portion of the tests were in Operation Plowshare, investigating their use for construction/excavation. All the craters you see in this image are from below ground tests and are collapse features from subsidence into the largely vaporized detonation zone.
Crater size and shape are determined almost entirely from payload and depth of detonation. Shallow detonations had the uplifted rim. Most of the craters are 150-400m wide and 20-50m deep. The dark line you see in the image upper background is a 2 lane paved road, the rest are smaller gravel roads.
It's safe to go there? Well...
NTS is one of the most radioactively contaminated sites in the United States. This does not mean the levels are so high that you can't travel through it, but it does elevate your dose cumulatively.
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