Inducing of Earthquakes by Underground Nuclear Explosions

Abstract

It is well known that underground nuclear explosions (UNE) are followed by a large number of aftershocks which occur in the area of several kilometers around the sources. A possible influence of UNE on the remote earthquakes was mostly remonstrated. Indeed, why should one expect this influence, i.e. triggering effect if every earthquake source was shaked many times by remote and local earthquakes. Its effect should mask the influence of a single UNE and make it undetectable., Even the strongest UNE like the Amchitka of November 6, 1971 M=7.0 were followed by no immediate aftershocks. Further, seismic deformations even the M=6 UNE in the distance of 1000 km is significantly less than Earth’s tide deformations whose inducing effect for the most part is very weak. These reasons gave rise to an opinion that UNE do not influence seismicity. One should agree that the effect is very weak, and to detect it the sensitive method should be developed and applied.