[ RadSafe ] More "earthquake"/test stuff

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Dear Radsafe,
 
    Hey All.
 
 
    There's a downloadable video on Google News of the Roof  Collapsing at 
Chernobyl.  Haven't looked 
at it yet.
 
 
    Some N. Korean Nuclear Weapons test data follow, mostly  from Wikipedia
Google search on:  north korea and nuclear and  test    or whatever.
 
    3  Nuclear Weapons tests lately:
 
      Date          Richter  Magnitude
 
     Oct. 2006        4.2
     May, 2009      4.7
     Feb., 2013      5.1
 
     So, you can see that the weapons test Richter  magnitudes are 
increasing in time.  Bigger 
nuclear weapons I guess.  The various earthquake magnitudes are  described 
in Bolt's book on
Seismology.  I think Bolt also wrote a book or articles on nuclear  bomb 
discrimination via
seismology.  Other people at US National Labs and elsewhere still do  this 
kind of work.
Graduate geology/geophysics departments might offer seismology coursework  
(and MS/PhD
research) emphasizing nuclear testing and seismology.  Look  around.
 
    A nuclear bomb test probably generates some rather nice  compressional 
waves, with a source
(earthquake source, not radiation source) that probably differs from  
strike-slip or dip-slip
(double couple) source mechanisms usually associated with Earth  
earthquakes.
 
    A good, fairly  theoretical book on Seismology is  by Aki and Richards. 
 It is similar in Mathematical
Complexity to Schiff's Quantum Mechanics.  Read it, if you so  desire.  
More elementary books are
probably by Richter, Gutenberg, Bullen, Stacey, Francis Wu etc.  
 
    Have a good week.
 
    Joe Preisig