Abstract
Seismic records from Finnish and Swedish stations were analyzed for a study of two aircraft accidents in Finland and Sweden. A Hornet F-18 fighter crashed in central Finland, and analysis of recorded impact signals from 7 nearby seismic stations yielded in a crash location only 4 km in error. An estimated magnitude (ML) of 0.5 units gave an impact velocity of 335 m/sec (1200 km/h), which was in excellent agreement with that reported by the Finnish Air Force. A Norwegian Hercules transport plane crashed in foul weather near the summit of Mt. Kebnekaise, NW Sweden. Both seismic and infrasound signals were weak, and in our interpretation, this implied that the Hercules aircraft had a less steep impact angle against the mountain. We also examined seismic analyses of other spectacular air accidents like that of Lockerbie, UK in 1988, and terrorist aircraft attacks on September 11th, 2001 in the USA. Likewise, accidents at sea, such as the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk in the Barents sea in 2000, and the freighter M/S Rocknes near Bergen in 2004, were recorded and analyzed seismically. In this study, we demonstrated that it was feasible to use seismic registrations to locate impact sites, and to define the exact time of such accidents. Also, negative evidence, i.e., lack of seismic recordings, may provide some information of such accidents and their consequences.
Highlights
Analysis of seismic records enables us to detect and recognize sources of elastic waves traveling in the Earth’s crust. Such observations are restricted to earthquake signals, but many other types of sudden dislocations generate seismic waves, including mining and nuclear explosions, supersonic flights, building collapses, and explosions at sea
Following the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack on the WTC towers in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington DC, the accurate timing of impacts and of building collapses were determined by analysis of registrations at nearby seismograph stations [1]
Albeit most airplane accidents are related to landing or take-off, often in foul weather, more than once rescue missions have been delayed for hours because the plane crash site was not immediately known
Summary
Analysis of seismic records enables us to detect and recognize sources of elastic waves traveling in the Earth’s crust. Such observations are restricted to earthquake signals, but many other types of sudden dislocations generate seismic waves, including mining and nuclear explosions, supersonic flights, building collapses, and explosions at sea. Advanced methods are used to track and locate almost any source, which emits seismic recordable signals in the Earth’s crust. With the ever-increasing number of modern highly sensitive seismic stations being deployed globally e.g. In this paper we present an analysis of recent seismically recorded accidents, which demonstrates that such information may be useful in accident and rescue investigations. Archived seismic data are available, and are freely accessible for independent analyses and conclusions
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