Chemical Explosions and the Discrimination Problem
Abstract
This report is in three sections: Section one describes empirical estimates of yield and tectonic release for 71 underground nuclear explosions conducted at the Shagan River Test Site, Kazakhstan, from 1977 to 1989. The method is based upon teleseismic observations of fundamental mode Love and Rayleigh waves at stations of the GDSN, CDSN, RSTN, and IRIS/USGS GSN. In 1977 as few as five stations were providing data, while in the late 1980's more than 25 stations were operational. Section two makes a case for generating lists of problems events - seismic sources whose signals cannot easily be discriminated - as a mechanism for achieving three goals: (1) encouraging seismologists to contribute data that may help to discriminate events listed; (2) training; and (3) helping to build consensus in the technical community, on what types of problem events are truly intractable with current data Section three describes spectral-temporal characteristics of regional seismograms and shows how they can be used to discriminate between different types of seismic sources. We analyze the high-frequency (1-40 hz) spectral of chemical explosions and earthquakes at local and regional distances to understand the seismic signal characteristics of different types of sources and to find stable discriminators. We evaluate the application of the spectrogram technique to regional seismograms in different geologic settings using data from single explosions, multiple-hole instantaneous explosions, ripple-fired quarry blasts, and earthquakes. The effects on high frequency spectra of local source and recorder site conditions and source to receiver path are also analyzed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 26, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA251594
Entities
People
- D. W. Simpson
- G. Ekstrom
- P. G. Richards
- W. Y. Kim
Organizations
- Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory