FOIA: Seismic wave radiation, propagation and event location in laterally heterogeneous media

SEISMIC_WAVE_RADIATION.pdf
Seismic wave radiation, propagation and event location in laterally heterogeneous media
Three studies related to nuclear monitoring. Elastic wave scattering, relocation of four presumed nuclear explosions at the Balapan, Kazakhstan test site and the effects of non-sphericity of an explosion cavity on seismic wave radiation.
Document date: 1995-05-01
Department: Earth Resources Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Author: A. Ben-Manahem, M. Imhof, Y. Li, O. Mikhailov, W. Rodi, M.N. Toksoz
Document type: report
pages: 109


Archivist's Notes: Fair to good quality document. Unclassified unlimited public distribution. form 298 page.

Table of Contents

List of Contributing Scientis - v
List of Previous and Related Contracts - v
Bibliography of Publications Totally or Partially Supported by the Contract- vi
Preface - vii
Multiple Multipole Expansions for Elastic Scattering - 1

Abstract - 1
Introduction – 2
Theoretical Background – 3
Numerical Results – 8
Discussion – 12
Acknowledgements – 14
References – 15
Figures – 17

Relocation of Explosions at the Balapan, Kazakhstan Test Site - 27

Summary – 27
Introduction – 27
Data Processing – 28
Relocation Results and Conclusions – 33
References – 35
Figures – 37

Multiple Radiation of Seismic Waves from Explosions in Non-spherical Cavities and its Application of Signal Identification – 47

Abstract – 48
Introduction – 49
Spherical Mapping Approximation – 53

Application to Realistic Cavity Shape – 58
Long-Wave Approximation and Corresponding Source Moment Tensor – 60
Surface Waves from explosions in an Underground Cavity – 65
Numerical Results for Radiation Patterns of Body and Surface Waves – 69
Discussion – 73
Acknowledgments – 75
References – 76
Legend of Figures – 79
Appendix A: Fundamental Elastodynamic Vectors, Associated Functions, and Coordinate Transformation Relations – 81
Appendix B: Quadrature of the Cavity Integrals – 86
Figures – 88

The project on which the report is based had three objectives. The first was to develop new methods for modeling regional wave propagation in laterally heterogeneous media. Toward this end we developed some new computational techniques for seismic wave scattering based on the boundary element method and multipole expansions. This report includes a preprint of a paper entitled, "Multiple multipole expansions for elastic scattering," which has been submitted to Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

The second objective was to develop techniques for relative event location and apply them to problems of nuclear monitoring. The second part of this report is the application of a relative event location method we developed, based on waveform cross-correlation, to the location of presumed explosions at the Balapan, Kazakhstan Test Site. Events at this test site have been located very accurately on the basis of satellite images, and this provides the opportunity to test the accuracy of our approach and compare it to the location accuracy achievable with conventional seismic techniques.

The third objective was to study the effects of non-spherical cavities on the seismic wave radiation from explosions.

This document is entitled: Seismic Wave Radiation, Propagation and
Event Location in Laterally Heterogeneous Media.

Report dated 1995 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology for AFOSR – 109 page document.

Listed under Vela documents.

This document highlights 3 studies related to nuclear monitoring and
discrimination.
- a new approach to modeling elastic wave scattering
- relative event location and waveform cross correlation techniques
are used to relocate 4 presumed nuclear explosions at the Balapan,
Kazakhstan Test Site
- the effects of non-sphericity of an explosion cavity on seismic wave
radiation.

Reviewer's comment: Though this document is scientific and completely
devoid of judgment regarding morality of nuclear testing or why there
was testing being done in Kazakhstan, my lasting impressions of this
document is that I am again shocked at the quantity of nuclear
explosions this planet has had to tolerate.
In the period of 1965 to 1989, 101 nuclear explosions were detected
from the Balapan test site.
One would think humans never knew that
nuclear radiation was harmful to life.