The underground nuclear explosion in North Korea on September 3rd, 2017 was so powerful that it moved a mountain, according to new research.
The blast was North Korea's sixth and largest nuclear test, conducted in an underground tunnel beneath Mount Mantap about 400 miles northeast of Pyongyang, North Korea's capital. The findings, by scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China, suggest the partial collapse of the mountain that contains the testing tunnels, as well as the risk of radiation leaks, have potentially rendered the site unusable.
According to the research of T. Wang and co-authors, two seismic events separated by 8,5 min were detected in the test site. The US Geological Survey and China Earthquake Networks Center determined a body wave magnitude of 6,3 for the first event, much larger than the five nuclear tests since 2006. The researchers mapped the region with a technique known as synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which is commonly used to make 3D terrain maps and detect terrain deformations. It is stated that the horizontal displacements were much higher (3,5 m) than the central's zone subsidense (0,5 m). ''We were all surprised by how big the horizontal motions were and how small the vertical motions were'' says Doug Dreger, a seismologist at UC Berkeley.
Numerical analyses to simulate the nuclear explosion in the mountain were conducted calibrating the model to fit the observations. The results showed that the explosion was followed by the partial collapse of the rock-mass directly above the blast cavity, about a second later. The second seismic event that is possibly related to the collapse of test's site tunnels caused minor damage to the mountain. According to the model, the damaged rock-mass above the cavity settled causing further sinking to the mountain's summit.
Another research by Burgmann and his colleagues at UC Berkeley, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore states that the explosion's yield at equivalent to 171.000 and 209.000 tons of TNT or between 9 and 23 times the size of the blast at Hiroshima.
In the aftermath of these events, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed that the country will close down the nuclear testing site sometime in May. Kim Jong-un also pledged to invite ''experts and journalists'' from both South Korea and the U.S. to visit the site to verify the deactivation with no further specification on the exact date.
Source: Nature.com
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