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Regional seismic characteristics of chemical explosions on the eastern margin of the Junggar Basin, northwest China, and of historical Semipalatinsk nuclear tests

Ma Xiao, Zhao Lianfeng, Xiao-Bi Xie, He Xi and Yao Zhenxing
Regional seismic characteristics of chemical explosions on the eastern margin of the Junggar Basin, northwest China, and of historical Semipalatinsk nuclear tests
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (October 2020) 111 (1): 606-620

Abstract

The applicability of the empirical magnitude-yield relations developed for northeast China and Korean Peninsula explosions was investigated for data from northwest China. We collected regional broadband digital seismic data from 13 chemical explosions (CEx) detonated between 6 September and 10 October 2018, on the eastern margin of the Junggar basin, northwest China, five nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, and eight natural earthquakes. Both Lg and Rayleigh-wave magnitudes (mb(Lg) and Ms, respectively) were estimated for these events. Similar to the North Korean test site, the mb(Lg)-Ms discriminant did not properly distinguish explosions from natural earthquakes at the Semipalatinsk test site. However, network-averaged P/S spectral ratios (Pg/Lg, Pn/Lg, and Pn/Sn) did successfully discriminate explosions from earthquakes at both the North Korean and the Semipalatinsk test sites at frequencies above 2.0 Hz. Based on 13 known-yield CEx, we selected an empirical magnitude-yield relation to constrain the explosive yields of five historical nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk test site. The resulting yields are lower than those previously obtained from teleseismic observations.


ISSN: 0037-1106
EISSN: 1943-3573
Coden: BSSAAP
Serial Title: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
Serial Volume: 111
Serial Issue: 1
Title: Regional seismic characteristics of chemical explosions on the eastern margin of the Junggar Basin, northwest China, and of historical Semipalatinsk nuclear tests
Affiliation: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Beijing, China
Pages: 606-620
Published: 20201020
Text Language: English
Publisher: Seismological Society of America, Berkeley, CA, United States
References: 62
Accession Number: 2021-006568
Categories: Seismology
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Illustration Description: illus. incl. 2 tables, sketch maps
N44°10'00" - N46°19'60", E85°00'00" - E91°00'00"
Secondary Affiliation: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CHN, ChinaUniversity of California at Santa Cruz, USA, United States
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2022, American Geosciences Institute. Abstract, Copyright, Seismological Society of America. Reference includes data from GeoScienceWorld, Alexandria, VA, United States
Update Code: 202105
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