Project Shoal

{{Infobox Nuclear weapons test

|name = Project Shoal

|picture = Bell telephone magazine (1922) (14755768882).jpg

|picture_description = Installing a hydrodynamic gauge to measure the nuclear test

|country = United States

|test_series = Operation Niblick
Vela Uniform

|test_site = Sand Springs Range

|date = October 26, 1963

|test_type = Underground

|yield = 12 kt

}}

Project Shoal was an underground nuclear test that took place on October 26, 1963 within the Sand Springs Range, approximately {{convert|30|mi}} southeast of Fallon, Nevada,{{Cite web |date=27 April 2009 |title=Shoal, Nevada, Site Fact Sheet |url=http://www.lm.doe.gov/Shoal/fact_sheet.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091002073654/http://www.lm.doe.gov/Shoal/fact_sheet.pdf |archive-date=2 October 2009 |access-date=5 March 2025 |website=US Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management}} in a granite formation of the range. The site was selected because its earthquake activity afforded a basis for seismic signal comparisons.[https://archive.org/stream/Aviation_Week_1963-11-11#page/n59/mode/1up Nevada Blast Begins Test Detection Effort]. // Aviation Week & Space Technology, November 11, 1963, v. 79, no. 20, p. 119.

Project Shoal was part of the Vela Uniform program sponsored jointly by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Vela Uniform was directed toward locating, detecting, and identifying underground detonations. The objective of Project Shoal was to detonate a nuclear device underground in an active seismic area so that seismic traces for the test and prior earthquakes could be compared and differentiated.

File:Niblick Shoal - Geologic Cross Section.svg

The test was performed on October 26, 1963. It involved detonating a 12-kiloton nuclear device in granitic rock at a depth of approximately {{convert|1211|ft}} below ground surface.

File:Project Shoal marker.jpg