Minor Scale
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- For the musical concept, see minor scale.
Minor Scale was a test conducted by the United States Defense Nuclear Agency (now part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency) involving the detonation of several thousand tons of conventional explosives for the purpose of simulating the explosion of a small nuclear bomb.
The test took place on June 27, 1985 at the White Sands Missile Range in the state of New Mexico. Various sources indicated that roughly 4.8[1] thousand tons of ANFO (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil) explosive were used to roughly simulate the effect of a four kiloton nuclear device. Minor Scale was reportedly "the largest planned conventional explosion in the history of the free world" [2], and very likely the largest man-made, non-nuclear, explosion to date.
The purpose of the test was to evaluate the effect of nuclear blasts on various pieces of military hardware, particularly new—and nominally blast-hardened—launchers for the Midgetman ballistic missile [3].
