A Deterministic Methodology for Discriminating between Earthquakes and Underground Nuclear Explosions

Abstract

The fundamental problem of interest is that of seismic discrimination. The approach is based on the development of deterministic computational models which predict the important characteristics of the teleseismic ground motion from earthquakes and underground explosions. The theoretical predictions are continuously compared to observations and in this way a confirmed theoretical framework is constructed for testing existing discriminants and for designing new ones. Much of this report is devoted to a study of the earthquake source. A three-dimensional finite difference model for earthquake faulting was developed and an earthquake simulation was carried out. Results from this complex, nonlinear earthquake simulation were compared to equivalent events computed with elastodynamic models of the relaxation and dislocation type. The interesting conclusion is that as a radiator of elastic waves, the finite difference source is similar to the relaxation/volume source model proposed by Archambeau.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA027705

Entities

People

  • D. G. Lambert
  • J. F. Masso
  • J. M. Savino
  • J. T. Cherry
  • T. C. Bache

Organizations

  • Utility Systems Science and Software (United States)

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • California
  • Computational Science
  • Computations
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Detection
  • Doppler Effect
  • Elastic Waves
  • Far Field
  • Geometry
  • Mechanics
  • Nuclear Explosions
  • Seismic Waves
  • Three Dimensional
  • Travel Time
  • Underground Explosions
  • United States
  • Wave Propagation

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)
  • Seismology