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Title: Evaluation of a Seismic Event, 12 May 2010, in North Korea

Journal Article · · Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1785/0120160111· OSTI ID:1525309
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Columbia Univ., Palisades, NY (United States). Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
  2. Federal Inst. for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Hannover (Germany)
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We assess seismological evidence bearing on claims that North Korea conducted a small nuclear test on 12 May 2010 in the vicinity of known underground nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, and 2016. First, we use Lg-wave cross-correlation and more traditional methods to locate the 2010 event between about 4 and 10 km southwest of the 2009 test. Second, we compare the relative sizes of regional P-waves and S-waves, using stations within 400 km of the known North Korean nuclear tests, to assess the nature of the event. We measured P/S ratios at different frequencies, at first using data from the open station MDJ in northeast China, for training sets of earthquakes and of explosions. We developed a linear discriminant function (LDF), that, in application to P/S measured at MDJ, is most effective in separating the earthquake and explosion populations. MDJ lacks usable data for the event of interest, but we have obtained regional data from stations of the nearby Dongbei Broadband Seismographic Network (DBSN), for the event of 12 May 2010 and for nearby underground nuclear tests conducted in 2006 and 2009. When our LDF is applied to DBSN data, and to data from stations SMT and NE3C in China, the LDF values measured from P/S ratios from known explosions are explosion-like; but for the event of 12 May 2010 the LDF values are earthquake-like for frequencies between 6 and 12 Hz. Furthermore, our method for characterizing earthquakes and explosions on the basis of their regional signals can be widely applied. Measurements of P/S based upon three-component waveform data provide better discrimination power than do those based upon vertical-component data alone.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Nonproliferation and Verification Research and Development (NA-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
NA0002534
OSTI ID:
1525309
Journal Information:
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 107, Issue 1; ISSN 0037-1106
Publisher:
Seismological Society of AmericaCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 11 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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