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Title: Moment Tensor Source-Type Analysis for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-Declared Nuclear Explosions (2006-2017) and 3 September 2017 Collapse Event

Abstract

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted its sixth announced nuclear test on 3 September 2017 03:30 UTC (mb 6.1). There was an aftershock 8.5 min later (mb 4.1). Such aftershocks were noteworthy and often associated with post–nuclear explosion collapses. We performed moment tensor (MT) and network sensitivity solution (NSS) analysis using regional long-period surface-wave and first-motion (FM) polarities. We also extended this analysis to the previous five DPRK nuclear tests. The NSS results, which include MT solution uncertainties, show large isotropic components for the events and are within the population of other U.S. nuclear and collapse events on the fundamental lune. The FM data improved the NNS source-type resolution. The agreement between MT seismic moments and independent coda-envelope amplitudes indicated no biases with the Earth model error or poorly constrained seismic moment for shallow seismic sources. The MT for the collapse is not a pure implosion and consistent with an equivalent tensional closing crack mechanism and two-sided vertical point force.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Berkeley Seismological Lab., Berkeley, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1481054
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-750307
Journal ID: ISSN 0895-0695; 935452
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Seismological Research Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 89; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 0895-0695
Publisher:
Seismological Society of America
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES

Citation Formats

Chiang, Andrea, Ichinose, Gene A., Dreger, Doug S., Ford, Sean R., Matzel, Eric M., Myers, Steve C., and Walter, W. R. Moment Tensor Source-Type Analysis for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-Declared Nuclear Explosions (2006-2017) and 3 September 2017 Collapse Event. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1785/0220180130.
Chiang, Andrea, Ichinose, Gene A., Dreger, Doug S., Ford, Sean R., Matzel, Eric M., Myers, Steve C., & Walter, W. R. Moment Tensor Source-Type Analysis for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-Declared Nuclear Explosions (2006-2017) and 3 September 2017 Collapse Event. United States. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220180130
Chiang, Andrea, Ichinose, Gene A., Dreger, Doug S., Ford, Sean R., Matzel, Eric M., Myers, Steve C., and Walter, W. R. Wed . "Moment Tensor Source-Type Analysis for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-Declared Nuclear Explosions (2006-2017) and 3 September 2017 Collapse Event". United States. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220180130. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1481054.
@article{osti_1481054,
title = {Moment Tensor Source-Type Analysis for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-Declared Nuclear Explosions (2006-2017) and 3 September 2017 Collapse Event},
author = {Chiang, Andrea and Ichinose, Gene A. and Dreger, Doug S. and Ford, Sean R. and Matzel, Eric M. and Myers, Steve C. and Walter, W. R.},
abstractNote = {The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) conducted its sixth announced nuclear test on 3 September 2017 03:30 UTC (mb 6.1). There was an aftershock 8.5 min later (mb 4.1). Such aftershocks were noteworthy and often associated with post–nuclear explosion collapses. We performed moment tensor (MT) and network sensitivity solution (NSS) analysis using regional long-period surface-wave and first-motion (FM) polarities. We also extended this analysis to the previous five DPRK nuclear tests. The NSS results, which include MT solution uncertainties, show large isotropic components for the events and are within the population of other U.S. nuclear and collapse events on the fundamental lune. The FM data improved the NNS source-type resolution. The agreement between MT seismic moments and independent coda-envelope amplitudes indicated no biases with the Earth model error or poorly constrained seismic moment for shallow seismic sources. The MT for the collapse is not a pure implosion and consistent with an equivalent tensional closing crack mechanism and two-sided vertical point force.},
doi = {10.1785/0220180130},
journal = {Seismological Research Letters},
number = 6,
volume = 89,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Wed Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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Cited by: 19 works
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Figures / Tables:

Table 1 Table 1: Best-fitting regional long-period regional moment tensor (RMT) solutions, seismic moment (Mo), moment magnitudes (Mw), and coda-moment magnitudes (Mw-coda).

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Focal mechanisms of the 2017 North Korean nuclear test and its early collapse event
journal, October 2019

  • Xu, Henglei; Ni, Sidao; Liu, Wenxue
  • Geophysical Journal International, Vol. 220, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggz462