Publications Details
Free-field seismic ground motion in non-proliferation experiment
In addition to stress and acceleration measurements made in the inelastic regime, Sandia fielded two triaxial accelerometer packages in the seismic free-field for the NON-PROLIFERATION EXPERIMENT (NPE). The gauges were located at ranges of 190 and 200 m from the center of the ANFO-laden cavity on the opposite sides of a vertical fault. This location allowed us to assess several different seismological aspects related to non-proliferation. The radial and vertical components of the two packages show similar motion. Comparisons are made with similar data from nuclear tests to estimate yield, calculate seismic energy release and to detect spectral differences between nuclear and non-nuclear explosions. The wave forms of NPE differ significantly from nuclear explosions. The first two peak amplitudes of NPE are comparable while the nuclear explosion initial peak is much larger than the second peak. The calculated seismic energies imply that the conventional explosions couple to the medium much better at low frequencies than do nuclear explosions and that nuclear explosions contain more high frequency energy than NPE. Radial and vertical accelerations were integrated for displacement and indicate there was movement across the fault.