Over the past 13 years a considerable body of data on explosive cratering has been developed for application to nuclear excavation projects. These data were obtained from some ten cratering programs using chemical explosives (TNT or nitromethane) and seven nuclear cratering detonations. The types of media studied have ranged from marine muck to hard, dry basalt, although most effort has been devoted to craters in NTS desert alluvium and basalt. Considerable effort has also been devoted to the study with chemical explosives of the use of linear explosives and rows of point charges. This paper is intended to be a summary of these data and a statement of the understanding which has been developed from them.

From abstract: "The results of recent measurements on the equations of state of sodium and xenon are discussed. The experimental data for each of these are analyzed to show that the isothermal compressibility is solely a function of volume within experimental accuracy. The basic differences between the low temperature PV relationships for sodium and xenon are shown to be easily understandable in terms of the elementary theories of these substances. The range of experimental pressures (to 20 kbars) and temperatures (20°K to the triple point) is sufficiently great so as to produce significant changes in the lattice thermal properties in each case. These changes are indicated through the use of zero pressure heat capacity data in combination with the equation of state data to calculate the volume and temperature dependence of the Debye Θ. The result is quite spectacular for xenon, where a pressure of 20 kbars roughly doubles ΘD."