Underground Nuclear Explosions Recorded At Rarotonga: Estimation of MB From T-Phase Amplitude |
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| Authors: | Warwick D Smith |
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| Institution: | Geophysics Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, PO Box 1320, Wellington, New Zealand. |
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| Abstract: | Summary. More than seventy underground nuclear explosions detonated in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia have been detected on the short-period vertical Benioff seismograph at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Early data suggested that the duration of the T -phase provides a better estimate of the magnitude of the events than does the amplitude, but with more data now available it has been shown that amplitude is in fact the more reliable parameter. Data prior to 1980 are more scattered than those since. This appears to be related to the substantially different station network in those early years, compared with the later period, and suggests some unreliability in early data. Station corrections have been extracted and improved estimates of the magnitudes of the events obtained. |
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| Keywords: | explosions hydroacoustic waves magnitude T-phases |
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