Effects of Secondary Sources of Underground Nuclear Explosions on the mb : Ms Criterion and Implications for Discrimination of the DPRK’s Nuclear Tests

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe mb : Ms (mb vs. Ms) relationship is an important criterion for screening explosions from earthquakes and has been widely adopted in seismological monitoring by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. In general, the earthquakes have larger Ms than the underground explosions with equivalent mb. However, it has been reported that this recognition criterion failed to identify some explosions at the North Korea nuclear test site. In this study, we investigate the potential effects of secondary source components, including the compensated linear vector dipole (CLVD) and double-couple (DC) sources, on mb and Ms magnitude measurements and the physical mechanism of the mb : Ms recognition criterion by calculating synthetic seismograms. The results show an apparent critical body-wave magnitude of 5 when using the mb : Ms method to discriminate North Korean underground nuclear explosions. The Ms measurements decrease as the CLVD components increase, whereas the effects from the DC source can be neglected. Small events, such as the first five North Korean nuclear tests, generate weak CLVD components, leading to the failure of mb : Ms-based discrimination, whereas the last event, with a larger magnitude, caused extensive damage and hence can be successfully discriminated. In addition, the large difference between the source spectrum of explosions and those of earthquakes might be another important factor in the successful mb : Ms-based discrimination of the sixth North Korean nuclear test.