24 Seismological methods of monitoring compliance with the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty

Abstract

This chapter presents general background on test ban monitoring and describes relevant specialized aspects of seismology. It reviews the procedures developed by the International Monitoring System (IMS) established by the treaty. One of the difficulties in treating monitoring is making the trade-off between simple methods of analysis that are robust, objective, unchanging and those sophisticated methods, which are demonstrably more effective but require a greater degree of expert judgment. The existence of practical and specialized experience of monitoring nuclear weapons tests and seismological resources generating potentially useful data fundamentally enhances Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) monitoring capability. The CTBT is essentially subjected to three types of monitoring—namely, that carried out directly by the IDC using data contributed by the IMS, that carried out by National Technical Means (NTM), and that carried out by numerous private or national organizations—each acquiring and analyzing data of some relevance to CTBT monitoring.