An earlier paper by the author considered the behavior of a semi‐infinite solid reacting elastically to a point‐initiated blast wave at the surface. When the applied pressures are sufficiently high, the solid will experience inelastic behavior characteristic of the material. The earth is here regarded as a medium made up of solid matter, water, and air voids. It is assumed that the principal effect of high normal stresses is to close up the air voids and that thereafter the medium acts like an elastic solid. The calculation of the peak pressure vs depth is compared with experimental data derived from nuclear bomb tests and shows reasonable agreement considering the wide scatter of test points.