Accurate location of nuclear explosions at Azgir, Kazakhstan, from satellite images and seismic data: Implications for monitoring decoupled explosions

Abstract

The 10 largest tamped nuclear explosions detonated by the Former Soviet Union in and near two salt domes near Azgir were relocated using seismic data and the locations of shot points on a SPOT satellite image taken in 1988. Many of the shot points are clearly recognized on the satellite image and can be located with an accuracy of 60 m even though testing was carried out at those points many years earlier, i. e. between 1966 and 1979. Onsite inspections and a local seismic monitoring network combined with our accurate locations of previous explosions would insure that any cavities that remain standing from those events could not be used for undetected decoupled nuclear testing down to a very small yield. Since the Azgir area, like much of the Pre‐Caspian depression, is arid, it would not be a suitable place for constructing large cavities in salt by solution mining and then using them for clandestine nuclear testing.