Does the underground test of a nuclear bomb have any possible effects on the earth's crust or mantle?

Answer 1

It can be measured as a vibration, but it has no significant impact on the structure of our fine planet, rest-assured!

Answer 2

Your use of the qualifying terms "any" and "possible" make this a wide-open problem, very open to interpretation. Qualifying terms like "significant" and "meaningful" would have made this a much more specific question.

An underground nuclear test:
- Sends both p and s waves through the earth. They are very characteristic allowing underground nuclear tests that dont have extensive specific rigging to be very clearly evaluated from the other side of the planet.
- Leaves radioactive byproducts in the local region of the test, primarily underground but if the test is not properly constructed also aboveground and in subsurface water flows.

Something to keep in mind is that the 2004 tsunami, generated by the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, was made by a 750 mile long section of the crust slipping about 50 ft along the subduction zone. The total energy released was equivalent to about 0.8 gigatons (or about 800 Megatons) of TNT being detonated. The largest nuclear weapon design, totally an exercise in propaganda, is the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) designed by Russia at 650 Megatons. The several astronomically large vessels required to transport it make it impossible to use in warfare. The largest bomb ever tested, also an exercise in cold-war propaganda, had an explosive magnitude of 50 Megatons, an intended maximum power, scaled down so it didnt hugely pollute Russia with radioactive fallout from 100 Megatons. It also is so insanely large that it could never be transported in a military setting.

The meteor impact that formed the chicxulub crater released an explosive energy of over 1000 terratons (or a billion megatons) of TNT. It radically altered the structure of the surface of the earth, and the lives of its inhabitants, but it is buried in the gulf of mexico.
Dont get me wrong, mass-extinctions occurred, but the overall large-scale structure of the earth was not destroyed. It was affected, but not destroyed.

I dont know if that tells you what you are interested in. I hope so.

Answer 3

thats probably a question they should have asked about 60 years ago when they were first making them. Of course those were many times smaller than the ones now, but even so, they are just a drop in the bucket compared to the earth. I guess some of those tv shows where the bad guy puts a bomb on the san andreas fault line to get beach front property in the desert might have a percentage of possibility, but highly unlikely.

Answer 4

Hmm, interesting question. I am sure that it may not have much of an effect, depending on the magnitude. In diagrams the crust looks like a piece of paper compared to the inner parts, but it really is hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles thick.

Answer 5

Go to a US military website and ask them, the US has done dozens of underground nuclear tests in Nevada.