Minor Scale was a test conducted on June 27, 1985, 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 to simulate the explosion of a small nuclear bomb. The purpose of the test was to evaluate the effect of nuclear blasts on various pieces of military hardware, particularly new, blast-hardened launchers for the MGM-134 Midgetman ballistic missile.[1]
The test took place at the Permanent High Explosive Testing Grounds of the White Sands Missile Range in the state of New Mexico, for which 4,744 tons of ANFO explosive (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil),[2][3] equivalent to 4 kilotons of TNT,[4] were used to roughly simulate the effect of an eight kiloton air-burst nuclear device. With a total energy release of about 17 TJ (or 4.2 kilotons of TNT equivalent), Minor Scale was reported as "the largest planned conventional explosion in the history of the free world",[5] surpassing another large conventional explosion, the "British Bang" disposal of ordnance on Heligoland in 1947, reported to have released 13 TJ of energy (about 3.2 kilotons of TNT equivalent).[6]
The Q&A released as part of the effort states: "Future tests are not expected to get bigger than Minor Scale", and in particular, "There are no plans for a test called Major Scale".[7]
^Summary of Minor Scale from nuclearfiles.org
^"Minor Scale Event, Test Execution Report". Albuquerque, N.M.: Tech Reps. 1986. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 22, 2011.
^J. Fitzgerald (1986). "Technical Report LA-10657-MS: Bistatic Phase Sounding in the Ionosphere above the Minor Scale Explosion" (PDF). Los Alamos National Labs.
^Minor Scale Event Test Execution Report, p. 135
^"Test Blast: Official Portrait".
^Willmore, PL (1949). "Seismic Experiments on the North German Explosions, 1946 to 1947". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. 242 (843). JSTOR: 123–151. Bibcode:1949RSPTA.242..123W. doi:10.1098/rsta.1949.0007. JSTOR 91443.
^Minor Scale Event, Test Execution Report, p. 137.
theory, the minorscale has three scale patterns – the natural minorscale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minorscale, and the melodic minorscale (ascending...
MinorScale was a test conducted on June 27, 1985, by the United States Defense Nuclear Agency (now part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency) involving...
which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minorscale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient civilizations...
The harmonic minorscale (or Aeolian ♯7 scale) is a musical scale derived from the natural minorscale, with the minor seventh degree raised by one semitone...
The Hungarian minorscale, double harmonic minorscale, or Gypsy minorscale is a type of combined musical scale. It is the fourth mode of the double harmonic...
F minor is a minorscale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, and E♭. Its key signature consists of four flats. Its relative major...
In music, relative keys are the major and minorscales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all of the...
describing additional possible transpositions of the diatonic scale. Major and minorscales came to dominate until at least the start of the 20th century...
fifth mode of Hungarian minor, or Double Harmonic minor, scale, also known as the Byzantine scale. Hungarian minorscale, minorscale with raised fourth and...
degree again. The resulting scale is, however, minor in quality, because, as the D becomes the new tonal centre, the F a minor third above the D becomes...
relative minor, A minor, natural minor: A B C D E F G A the melodic minorscale, A B C D E F♯G♯A ascending, A G F E D C B A descending the harmonic minor scale...
A minor is a minorscale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major...
from melodic minorscale only by raising the third degree to a major third. The double harmonic major scale has a minor second and a minor sixth. It is...
D minor is a minorscale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B♭, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major...
C minor is a minorscale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, and B♭. Its key signature consists of three flats. Its relative major...
E minor is a minorscale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F♯, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative major is G major...
octatonic (or diminished), and the modes of the ascending melodic minor. All of these scales were commonly used by late nineteenth and early twentieth-century...
G minor is a minorscale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B♭, C, D, E♭, and F. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative major is B-flat...
the fourth scale degree with each successive key (starting on F requires a B♭ to form a major scale). Each major key has a relative minor key that shares...
Phrygian dominant scale is the fifth mode of the harmonic minorscale, the fifth being the dominant. Also called the altered Phrygian scale, dominant flat...
B minor is a minorscale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C♯, D, E, F♯, G, and A. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative major is D major...
major Neapolitan scale and the minor Neapolitan scale are two musical scales. Both scales are minor, in that they both contain a minor third above the...
Tones and Semitones (and of the so-called Major-MinorScale)) from c. 1879, which preceded Vito Frazzi's Scale alternate per pianoforte of 1930 by 50 years...
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