The geological impact of nuclear testing at the Nevada test siteThe Nevada test site is an area designated by the United States government for weapons testing nuclear. It is located in rural southern Nevada and is about the size of the state of Rhode Island. This location was established in 1952 as one of 5 land sites designated for this task. Above-ground nuclear or atmospheric tests were conducted at the Nevada Test Site until 1958. There was a hiatus in testing until the United States decided to begin underground testing in 1962. A total of 828 tests were performed during these years nuclear underground. In 1963 the United States signed a limited nuclear test ban treaty that limited surface testing worldwide. These underground tests were carried out until 1992 and the nuclear tests in the United States were seized all together in 1994 when the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed. Most of the tests were conducted to further Cold War efforts, as well as to deepen the general understanding of the effects and results of nuclear tests. This article will discuss the history, geological aspects, and impacts of the Nevada Test Site on this and surrounding areas of Nevada. The history of atomic tests begins during the Second World War. Most testing during this period was done at the Los Alamos test site in New Mexico. All test locations have several key characteristics that make them good locations for nuclear testing. They are all far from areas of high population density. For example, the Nevada Test Site is located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but has little to no population in the immediate area. They are also found in areas where there is little or very deep underground aquifer... middle of paper... impressive, atomic reserves are squalid compounds of reactors and concrete factories with no windows and hasty government specifications architecture: frozen places in the fifties and sixties. (Seattle Times Company 1995) Works Cited “Estimated Exposures and Thyroid Doses Received by the American People from Iodine-131 in Radioactive Fallout Following the Nevada National Cancer Institute (NCI) Atmospheric Nuclear Bomb Tests. 2002. June 2004. Eckel, Edwin B., ed. Nevada Test Site. 110 Boulder, CO: The Geological Society of America, 1968 Nevada Test Site. Org Seattle Times web. 1995. Seattle Times Company 2004.>