Study of Anomalous Mine Blasts
Abstract
The Altai-Sayan mining region located east of Novosibirsk, Russia, comprises over 72 mines which are located between 7 and 559 km from the International Monitoring System (IMS) primary 3-component station ZAL. We have origin time and location estimates of 853 blasts that have occurred in this trend between 1/1/1995 and 6/30/2000. The mines are known to use millisecond delay-fire blasting and had explosive yields ranging from < 10T to > 500 T. We are currently analyzing the range dependence of seismic waveforms from these blasts to prepare for the use of a correlation method to associate individual mine blast recordings with a specific mines and to look for detonation anomalies. Detonation anomalies are of particular interest as the simultaneous release of a significant explosive yield within a routine mine blast shot sequence might be confused with a clandestine nuclear test. Recent advances in the simulation of seismic signals from delay-fired mine blasts make it possible to study the effects of these complex events provided that ancillary data on the events under study and the medium through which the energy propagates to the receivers are available. Our focus thus far has been on the collection of ground truth data on blasts in the Altai-Sayan region and the crustal structure. We are currently assessing the accuracy of the data and arranging the collection of more complete data in the future. We have observed surface waves at the Kyrgyz broadband seismic network (KNET) that have been produced by large mine blasts in the Altai-Sayan trend. We are currently assessing the utility of the dense KNET for characterizing sub-kiloton mine blasts from mid- to far-regional range.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA527732
Entities
People
- Michael A. Hedlin
- Vitaly I. Khalturin
Organizations
- University of California, San Diego