Treaty between the United States of America and the union of soviet socialist republics on underground nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes

During the Cold War of the 20th century and the classification of information between the largest nuclear states the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States of America (USA), data on the registration of nuclear explosions were not published in the reports of the Unitied Seismic Observation Service. However, underground nuclear explosions were recorded. For example, underground nuclear explosions, produced by the United States on Amchitka island, were recorded by more than 30 stations of the USSR at epicentral distances Δ ~ 8–160°. Tests at the Nevada Test Site were found especially well throughout the USSR seismic stations. As a result of processing the bulletins of registered events, checking the values with the time service, the registration parameters for the Soviet stations were destroyed. However, thanks to an employee of the laboratory 5-s of the Institute of Physics of the Earth named after O.Yu. Schmidt of the USSR Academy of Sciences Kh.D. Rubinstein is kept at the Institute for the Dynamics of Geospheres of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after Academician M.A. Sadovsky. Only after 1985 messages from some seismic stations of the former USSR began to be published in the operational reports of the Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This material is intended to publish that layer of invaluable information on the registration of underground nuclear explosions, made by the United States, which has been so carefully created for decades, and has not been published anywhere at the moment.

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VELA UNIFORM, THE NATION’S QUEST FOR BETTER DETECTION OF UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/1.1438905 ◽

1961 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 499-507 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Charles C. Bates

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Control System ◽

State Of The Art ◽

The United States ◽

Effective Control ◽

Development Effort ◽

Underground Nuclear Explosions ◽

Nuclear Explosions ◽

Nuclear Weapons Testing ◽

The United Kingdom

Negotiations between the United States, the United Kingdom, and the USSR have been underway since October 31, 1958, a period of over two years, in an effort to reach agreement on a treaty for cessation of nuclear weapons’ testing. It is United States policy to enter into such a treaty only if there is an effective control system policing such a ban. This paper provides a résumé of key technical events that have occurred with reference to the creation of such a control system, capable of detecting and identifying underground nuclear explosions. The paper also describes the VELA UNIFORM program, a widespread research and development effort under the over‐all management of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, that is designed to improve markedly the state of the art in this particular technical field over the next two to three years.

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Differentiation of earthquakes and underground nuclear explosions on the basis of amplitude characteristics

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America ◽

10.1785/bssa0530050979 ◽

1963 ◽

Vol 53 (5) ◽

pp. 979-987 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David E. Willis ◽

John DeNoyer ◽

James T. Wilson

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Particle Velocity ◽

The United States ◽

Geographic Range ◽

Shear Surface ◽

Diagnostic Aid ◽

Compressional Waves ◽

Underground Nuclear Explosions ◽

Nuclear Explosions ◽

Amplitude Characteristics

Abstract The particle velocity ratios of the maximum shear-surface waves to maximum compressional waves were determined for a large number of earthquakes recorded over a wide geographic range. These results are compared with similar types of data for underground nuclear detonations recorded in the United States. It was found that this technique could be used as a diagnostic aid in distinguishing between these two types of sources at distances less than 1000 km.

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Short-period seismic energy radiation patterns from underground nuclear explosions and small-magnitude earthquakes

Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America ◽

10.1785/bssa0570020249 ◽

1967 ◽

Vol 57 (2) ◽

pp. 249-267 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

George H. Sutton ◽

Walter Mitronovas ◽

Paul W. Pomeroy

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Surface Wave ◽

Total Energy ◽

Seismic Energy ◽

The United States ◽

Radiation Patterns ◽

Small Magnitude ◽

Underground Nuclear Explosions ◽

Nuclear Explosions ◽

Short Period

abstract Azimuthal radiation patterns of short-period (0.5-2.0 cps) seismic energy obtained from integrals of the seismograms from two underground nuclear explosions and two earthquakes are used to study the propagation and source characteristics of the Pg and Lg phases in the United States. In addition, the energy spectrum is divided into two bands, greater than and less than 1.4 cps, and the ratio of higher-to-lower-frequency energy is mapped to study the nature of propagation as a function of frequency. Both the total energy and the ratio show large fluctuations with azimuth and distance. However, a general correlation is found between the energy and ratio contours and the major tectonic provinces of the United States. This correlation is attributed to focusing, resulting from lateral variations in velocity and to regional differences in attenuation of the seismic energy. The range in the Q values across the United States, based on the assumption of symmetrical surface wave propagation, is from 200 to 1000, about a factor of 5. The transverse (T) component shows about the same total energy and ratio contour patterns as the vertical (Z) and longitudinal (L) components. Also, energy contour maps are similar to maps obtained using the maximum amplitudes of the Pg and Lg phases. For the events examined, it seems that the nature and distribution of tectonic features along the propagation path are more important in detemining the resultant radiation patterns than the initial conditions at the source. The particle motion at most stations does not give direct proof for the surface wave nature of the Pg and Lg phases, except that Pg tends to be longitudinal or mixed and Lg transverse or mixed.

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