Research Article| April 02, 2019 Yield and Emplacement Depth Effects on Acoustic Signals from Buried Explosions in Hard Rock Daniel C. Bowman Daniel C. Bowman Corresponding Author aSandia National Laboratories, 1515 Eubank SE MS 0404, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123 U.S.A., dbowma@sandia.gov Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information Daniel C. Bowman Corresponding Author aSandia National Laboratories, 1515 Eubank SE MS 0404, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123 U.S.A., dbowma@sandia.gov Publisher: Seismological Society of America First Online: 02 Apr 2019 Online Issn: 1943-3573 Print Issn: 0037-1106 © Seismological Society of America Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (2019) 109 (3): 944–958. https://doi.org/10.1785/0120180285 Article history First Online: 02 Apr 2019 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Daniel C. Bowman; Yield and Emplacement Depth Effects on Acoustic Signals from Buried Explosions in Hard Rock. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 2019;; 109 (3): 944–958. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/0120180285 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyBulletin of the Seismological Society of America Search Advanced Search Abstract Subterranean energy releases such as explosions and earthquakes may disturb the Earth‐atmosphere interface, creating acoustic waves that can travel great distances. These waves provide a record of the ground motion directly above the event. The information they encode may provide critical insight into the depth and size of underground explosions, the sequence of events immediately before volcanic eruptions, and the magnitude of strong motion resulting from earthquakes. However, the effect of event size and burial depth on the resulting acoustic wave has not been explored in detail. Here, the relationship between acoustic amplitude, frequency, and energy is investigated for a series of well‐characterized underground chemical explosions in granite. Acoustic amplitude was found to vary linearly with explosive yield divided by emplacement depth. Peak acoustic frequency appears to be a function of explosive yield alone. The ratio of radiated acoustic energy to source energy had a relatively poor fit to yield, depth, and combinations thereof. These relationships suggest that acoustic analysis can be used to determine the size and depth of a buried explosion. The results presented here have particular relevance to the nuclear monitoring community, because depth is difficult to determine with seismic methods. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.