Swords into plowshares: Military geology and national security projects
Military geology and national security projects are often comparable, achieving their rai-son d`etre in support of national goals, military operations, and/or systems-all for vital national interests. The application of Geoscience to these ends, especially engineering geology, has occurred from pole to pole and included every conceivable environment and natural condition. In the conduct of such projects, the Geosciences have advanced, and vice versa. Desert trafficability, most notably regarding playa surfaces, is both temporary and variable and not a persistent condition as some early authors believed. Playas in Australia, Iran, and the US show that saline efflorescence is removed following surface water dissolution and subsequent deflation, resulting in very hard crusts. Magadiite, a hydrous sodium silicate and possible precursor of bedded chert, was first discovered in North America at Alkali Lake, OR, during a military project. Pleistocene Lake Trinity, a small and mostly buried evaporate basin in the northern Jornada del Muerto, NM, was discovered during exploratory drilling in support of a military test program.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 191640
- Report Number(s):
- SAND--94-1505C; CONF-9405344--1; ON: DE96003702
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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