Estimating the effect of Asian earthquake codas on the explosion detection capability of LASA

Technical Report · Fri Jul 13 04:00:00 EDT 1973

OSTI ID:4311628

Filson, J R

A study was made of the short period detection characteristics of LASA within the codas of earthquakes occurring in the Kurile Island region and near the Kamchatka peninsula. The study yielded an estimate of the time interval that LASA would not detect an explosion in central Asia following an earthquake in either of the two seismic regions; this estimate is given as a function of earthquakeexplosion magnitude difference. An attempt was also made to model the hypothetical cases where the explosions were collocated with the earthquakes in either the Kuriles or Kamchatka regions and estimates of the mask time intervals are given for these cases. The results of the experiments are extended in order to estimate the total time, during the decade 1961-- 1972, that an explosion of a given magnitude in either central Asia, the Kuriles, or Kamchatka would have gone undetected at LASA due to the seismicity of the latter two regions. This total mask time, under various assumptions, is quantified into separate time intervals in the cases where the explosions and earthquakes are collected. A result of this quantification is that, in the context of this experiment, there were a maximum of 300 two minute time intervale during the decade that a magnitude 5.0 explosion in the Kuriles might possibly have gone undetected at LASA, and 10 such intervals that the explosion most probably would have gone undetected, due to the seismicity of the Kurile Islands region. (auth)

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Lexington (USA). Lincoln Lab.
• NSA Number: NSA-29-024145
• OSTI ID: 4311628
• Report Number(s): AD--767878-2-GA; ESD-TR--73-227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

*EARTHQUAKES-- SEISMIC DETECTION
*NUCLEAR EXPLOSION DETECTION-- SEISMIC WAVES
N42510* --Engineering--Nuclear Explosions--Detection Systems
UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS