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(left) Schematic illustration of SPE Phase I and FSE experiments. (right) Map showing NNSS with source location (red star) and seismic (green triangles) and acoustic (inverted triangles) station locations for SPE and FSE explosions. Acoustic stations color coded blue recorded SPE explosions, while acoustic stations color coded cyan recorded FSE explosions.
Source publication
In recent years, two sets of chemical explosions have been conducted at the Nevada National Security Site: six explosions from Phase I of the Source Physics Experiment and four explosions from the Forensics Surface Events. We have estimated the explosive yield and depth‐of‐burial/height‐of‐burst of both from the synthesis of seismic and low‐frequen...
Citations
... This indicates that chemical explosives are a useful analog for understanding the rock damage following an underground nuclear explosion [11]. Modeling and experiments have been used in recent years to better understand seismic wave generation [12][13][14] gas transport [15], and rock damage [16][17][18], following underground chemical explosions. Because there are considerable differences between a nuclear and chemical explosive source, there are expected differences in the behavior of gas transport. ...
Simulations of rock damage and gas transport following underground explosions that omit preexisting fracture networks in the subsurface cannot fully characterize the influence of geo-structural variability on gas transport. Previous studies do not consider the impact that fracture network structure and variability have on gas seepage. In this study, we develop a sequentially coupled, axi-symmetric model to look at the damage pattern and resulting gas breakthrough curves following an underground explosion given different fracture network realizations. We simulate 0.327 and 0.164 kT chemical explosives with burial depths of 100 m for 90 stochastically generated fracture networks. Gases quickly reach the surface in 30% of the higher yield simulations and 5% of the lower yield simulations. The fast breakthrough can be attributed to the formation of connected pathways between fractures to the surface. The formation of a connected damage pathway to the surface is not clearly correlated with the fracture intensity (P32) in our simulations. Breakthrough curves with slower transport are highly variable depending on the fracture network sample. The variability in the breakthrough behavior indicates that ignoring the influence of fracture networks on rock damage, which strongly influences the hydraulic properties following an underground explosion, will likely lead to a large underestimation of the uncertainty in the gas transport to the surface. This work highlights the need for incorporation of fracture networks into models for accurately predicting gas seepage following underground explosions.
... На территории НИП субкритические взрывы, кроме США, проводит Соединённое Королевство [Database …, 2023]. Следует отметить, что кроме субкритических взрывов на территории НИП проводится большое количество калибровочных и экспериментальных взрывов мощностью до 1 кт (здесь и далее показана мощность в ТНТ-эквиваленте (тринитротолуола)), многие из которых хорошо описаны в литературных источниках [Pasyanos, Kim, 2019;The non-proliferation …, 1994]. ...
... По данным СГ NVAR создана база данных химических взрывов, в т.ч. эталонных (табл. 2 [Passyanos,Kim, 2019]), а также тектонических землетрясений из района полигона (рис. 6). ...
The results of processing the seismic event of October 18, 2023 in the area of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) are presented using digital records of seismic arrays and three-component stations available in open sources, at local and regional distances. Kinematic and dynamic parameters of the seismic event were obtained. A comparison with well-known reference explosions and tectonic earthquakes on the territory of the NTS in order to estimate the event’s yield, as well as determination of the source’s nature was made. It is highly likely that the event under study is a chemical explosion with yield of at least two tons
... Therefore, the longitudinal wave usually reaches the measuring point first. The shear wave energy is larger than that of the longitudinal wave, and the particle vibration speed is relatively large, but the shear wave propagation speed is smaller than that of the longitudinal wave [19,20]. ...
The seismic wave generated in the ammunition explosion process is one of the important technical indicators to evaluate the ammunition damage power. It is of great significance to evaluate the ammunition damage power and study the targets damage characteristics. In this study, experimental studies were carried out with TNT explosive mass of 1.25 kg, 5.25 kg, 10.5 kg and 30.75 kg, and the ground vibration velocity time-history curves at different measuring points were obtained. The functional relationship between ground particle vibration acceleration and TNT explosive mass was established by dimensional analysis method, and the functional relationship calculation accuracy was verified by the measured test data. The results show that the particle vibration acceleration peak value is positively correlated with the TNT explosive mass, and negatively correlated with the measuring point distance; The particle vibration acceleration calculation function established by the dimensional analysis method has high fitting accuracy for the existing test data, and can be used to calculate the ammunition explosion ground vibration acceleration peak value. The research results provide a high-precision calculation method for the peak value of explosion seismic wave ground vibration acceleration.
... For confined belowground explosions, seismic signals are produced when energy is deposited directly into the surrounding rock; however, some portion of that energy propagates to the air-ground interface and produces surface motions that couple the seismic energy into the acoustic domain (Jones et al., 2015;Bowman, 2019;Blom et al., 2020;Kim et al., 2022). For surface and elevated explosive sources, energy is deposited directly into the atmosphere, producing an overpressure pulse that propagates outward as an explosive blastwave (Kinney and Graham, 2013), and the interaction of this pressure pulse with the ground surface couples energy into the seismic domain in a complicated process that is highly dependent on factors such as the height of the burst and local geology (Bonner et al., 2013;Ford et al., 2014;Templeton et al., 2018;Pasyanos and Kim, 2019;Koper et al., 2002). The condition of the atmosphere also directly impacts the strength of the acoustic signal and the direction and range of observation (Green et al., 2011;Kim and Rodgers, 2017;Kim et al., 2018). ...
Seismoacoustic signals at local distance (<∼10 km) are widely used as important constraints on source parameters for near-surface events, yet the seismoacoustic wave generation and energy partitioning are not fully understood. Spatially dense sensors could provide observations in high resolution to capture the full wavefield for better understanding wave propagation and improving source estimation. Recently, spatially dense observations of the local seismoacoustic wavefield produced by a pair of 1-ton surface explosions have been recorded using a large-N seismic array. This large-N array consists of 446 geophones and covers an area of approximately 2×2.5 km2. The two surface explosions occur at the same location but at different times with different atmospheric conditions. Both seismic and air–ground coupled acoustic waves from the two surface explosions are well observed. Analyses of signals recorded by the large-N seismic array show different acoustic wave speed and amplitude for the two explosions. A strong spatial variability in acoustic wave speed and amplitude for each explosion is also observed. The observations suggest the important role of local atmosphere state on wave propagation and source estimation and demonstrate how the use of a large-N capability can improve characterization of the propagation medium and source.
... This data set is ideal because the region is tectonically active (Anderson and Miyata, 2006), and the recordings consist of three unique sensor deployments across three distinct lithologies. These deployments were a result of the Source Physics Experiment (SPE), a set of underground chemical explosions conducted at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), executed with the goal of analyzing acoustic and seismic recordings of the blasts (Ford and Walter, 2013;Jones et al., 2015;Mellors et al., 2018;Poppeliers et al., 2018Poppeliers et al., , 2020Bowman et al., 2019;Darrh et al., 2019;Pasyanos and Kim, 2019;Blom et al., 2020). The SPE data set spanned several years and provides the ability to leverage previous studies that have thoroughly characterized the geological properties of the area. ...
Earthquakes have repeatedly been shown to produce inaudible acoustic signals (<20 Hz), otherwise known as infrasound. These signals can propagate hundreds to thousands of kilometers and still be detected by ground-based infrasound arrays depending on the source strength, distance between source and receiver, and atmospheric conditions. Another type of signal arrival at infrasound arrays is the seismic induced motion of the sensor itself, or ground-motion-induced sensor noise. Measured acoustic and seismic waves produced by earthquakes can provide insight into properties of the earthquake such as magnitude, depth, and focal mechanism, as well as information about the local lithology and atmospheric conditions. Large earthquakes that produce strong acoustic signals detected at distances greater than 100 km are the most commonly studied; however, more recent studies have found that smaller magnitude earthquakes (Mw<2.0) can be detected at short ranges. In that vein, this study will investigate the ability for a long-term deployment of infrasound sensors (deployed as part of the Source Physics Experiments [SPE] from 2014 to 2020) to detect both seismic and infrasonic signals from earthquakes at local ranges (<50 km). Methods used include a combination of spectral analysis and automated array processing, supported by U.S. Geological Survey earthquake bulletins. This investigation revealed no clear acoustic detections for short range earthquakes. However, secondary infrasound from an Mw 7.1 earthquake over 200 km away was detected. Important insights were also made regarding the performance of the SPE networks including detections of other acoustic sources such as bolides and rocket launches. Finally, evaluation of the infrasound arrays is performed to provide insight into optimal deployments for targeting earthquake infrasound.
... Our approach using a physics-based propagation model can be extended to seismoacoustic yield estimation. Pasyanos and Ford (2015) demonstrated that joint seismic and acoustic likelihoods can substantially improve the determination of yield and depth-of-burial (DOB). Although our inversion was performed for a surface explosion based on K21, we can explore how different yields and depths can produce similar acoustic amplitudes based on the seismoacoustic energy partitioning (Ford et al., 2014;Pasyanos & Kim, 2019) (Text S2 in Supporting Information S1). We calculate the reduced acoustic impulse for a surface explosion of 0.8 kt TNT and compare it with the impulses for various yields and DOBs derived from Ford et al. (2014). ...
... The analysis was performed in the 1-8 Hz passband using a recently-developed high-resolution attenuation model for the Arabian Peninsula (Pasyanos et al., 2021). We employ the surface coupling curve for hardrock from Ford et al. (2014) that was specified in Pasyanos and Kim (2019). For standard limestone, we find a minimum misfit for a surface explosion at 0.9 ktons TNT. ...
Plain Language Summary
On 4 August 2020, 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon exploded. It is the largest single‐fired ammonium nitrate explosion documented in history and produced unusually loud infrasound (low‐frequency sound below 20 Hz) up to about 6,000 km away. We estimate the size of the Beirut explosion based on the infrasound, whose waveforms were clearly recorded at a regional infrasound array at an epicentral distance of 100 km. These clear waveforms provide a rare opportunity to invert infrasound signals for the explosion yield. Unlike conventional inversions using a simple regression analysis, we use full 3‐D physics‐based numerical simulations for infrasound propagation to predict the observed waveforms. We calculate energy attenuation from the explosion site to the observing stations and then infer the explosion size based on the calculation. Numerical modeling of regional infrasound at this range is particularly challenging because of the highly turbulent atmosphere. We use a stochastic weather forecast model to capture the variability of weather condition and provide a quantitative uncertainty analysis of waveform prediction.
... The primary goal of the experiment was to obtain ground-truth data for seismic, acoustic, and nearfield deformation to develop a physics-based model for underground explosions. The SPE data have been widely used to develop seismic (Pitarka et al., 2015;Ford and Vorobiev, 2020), acoustic (Bowman, 2019;Pasyanos and Kim, 2019;Blom et al., 2020), seismoacoustic models (Poppeliers et al., 2018), and to improve physics-based simulation capabilities. A network of surface accelerometers recorded surface motion above the buried explosions. ...
... SPE-6 shot was an explosion equivalent to 2245 kg trinitrotoluene at a depth of 31.4 m, which is the shallowest in the six detonations producing the largest infrasound signals. (Pasyanos and Kim, 2019). Figure 3 shows the acoustic sensor network deployed for the SPE-6 event. ...
Underground explosions can produce infrasound in the atmosphere, and the wavefield characteristics are often governed by the ground surface motions. Finite-difference methods are popular for infrasound simulation as their generality and robustness allow for complex atmospheric structures and surface topography. A simple point-source approximation is often used because infrasound wavelengths tend to be large relative to the source dimensions. However, this assumption may not be able to capture the complexity of explosion-induced ground motions if the surface area is not compact, and appropriate source models must be incorporated into the finite-difference simulations for accurate infrasound prediction. In this study, we develop a point source representation of the complex ground motions for infrasound sources. Instead of a single point source, we use a series of point sources distributed over the source area. These distributed point sources can be equivalent to air volume changes produced by the ground motions in the atmosphere. We apply the distributed point-source method to a series of buried chemical explosions conducted during the Source Physics Experiment Phase I. Epicentral ground-motion measurements during the experiments provide a way to calculate accurate distributed point sources. We validate and evaluate the accuracy of distributed point source approach for infrasound simulations by direct comparison with acoustic observations in the field experiment.
... Estimating near-ground explosion yield is critical for industrial explosion accident monitoring [1,2], range weapon testing [3], and terrorist attack monitoring [4,5]; the seismo-acoustic analysis method based on data fusion of seismic and acoustic data are extremely effective for long-range explosion yield monitoring [2,[5][6][7][8][9][10]. Arrowsmith et al. [5] outlined the numerous application scenarios for the seismo-acoustic analysis method and demonstrated that combined inversion for source parameters using seismic and acoustic data has a broad application potential. ...
... Templeton [11] conducted a detailed analysis of the near-surface seismic model in hard and soft rock medium and documented the modelling procedure in detail. On the above basis, Pasyanos et al. [8] examined the seismo-acoustic analysis process in hard rock media in detail and applied the complete waveform method to the inversion of the explosion source parameters. Ford, Zhang, et al. [9,10] updated the Bayesian MCMC approach for seismo-acoustic analysis and explored the seismic and acoustic model. ...
... The seismo-acoustic analysis approach increases the estimation accuracy of the source characteristics by simultaneously providing information about atmospheric and ground medium fluctuation [6][7][8][9][10]. The approach for inverting explosion yields using seismo-acoustic analysis is composed of three components: an acoustic model, a seismic first-peak displacement model, and a data fusion method. ...
The seismo-acoustic analysis approach, which is based on the fusion of acoustic and seismic data, is an extremely effective way of monitoring the yield of explosions over a long distance. To address the problem of estimating the explosion yield at a multi-ground-medium-mixed site (abbreviated as mixed site), this article derives the general explosion yield prediction forms of acoustic model and seismic model, establishes the inversion method for explosion source parameters at mixed site by introducing the ground medium amplification factor, analyzes the inversion accuracy by using experimental data, and discusses the amplification effect and the influence of different scaling relationships. The experimental results indicate that the dispersion of the acoustic impulse relative to the overpressure decreases with distance and the linear relationship of acoustic impulse is better on a logarithmic scale, whereas the vertical component of the first peak of the seismic particle velocity and displacement, as well as the radial-vertical-tangent vector sum, exhibit a good linear variation law over a certain range on the logarithmic scale. The results of the source parameter inversion demonstrate that when the amplification factor is introduced, the inversion of the explosion source parameters of the mixed site has a high accuracy for yield estimation; however, when only single hard-rock media is considered, the inversion of the explosion source parameters produces large errors. The results of the amplification effect and scaling relationship analysis indicate that geological amplification has a substantial effect on the explosion source parameter inversion results, and that the data dispersion degrees of Sachs and KG85 scaling relationships are essentially identical.
... Analyses of these experiments revealed considerable trade-off between the effects of yield and HOB or DOB on either seismic or acoustic measurements resulting in inaccurate estimates, if a single measurement type (seismic or acoustic) is used (e.g., Pasyanos and Kim, 2019). Various empirical relationships between the measurements and the yield and HOB or DOB were developed using either seismic (e.g., Templeton et al., 2018) or acoustic (Kim and Rodgers, 2016;Arrowsmith and Bowman, 2017;Bowman, 2019) features. ...
... Various empirical relationships between the measurements and the yield and HOB or DOB were developed using either seismic (e.g., Templeton et al., 2018) or acoustic (Kim and Rodgers, 2016;Arrowsmith and Bowman, 2017;Bowman, 2019) features. Several studies focused on quantifying the seismoacoustic energy partitioning with HOB or DOB and using it to refine the yield estimation (Koper et al., 1999(Koper et al., , 2002Arrowsmith et al., 2010;Ford et al., 2014;Pasyanos and Kim, 2019). In a recent study by Ford et al. (2021), the analysis was expanded to add optical waves. ...
... In addition, we included the data from the Source Physics Experiment (SPE; e.g., Pasyanos and Kim, 2019) and Dry Alluvium Geology (DAG; e.g., Prothro and Wagoner, 2020) experiment conducted at the Nevada National Security Site. SPE shots SPE-2, SPE-3 and SPE-6 (997 kg, 905 kg and 2245 kg TNTe respectively) and DAG shot DAG-4 (10 t TNTe) were used in this study. ...
We developed a machine learning approach to estimate an explosion yield and height-of-burst or depth-of-burial (HOB or DOB) using a combination of seismic ground-motion and acoustic measurements. The technique employs artificial neural networks (ANNs) with Bayesian regularization suitable for small datasets to reduce the potential for overfitting and improve the network generalization. Using data from multiple explosion experiments conducted in various rock types, we investigated the effect of different seismic and acoustic measurement methods combined with estimated seismic velocity on the yield and the scaled HOB or DOB estimates. The training dataset for the ANN comprised data from 42 explosions conducted in various media at different HOB or DOB. Two additional explosions were used for the method validation. The input features included seismic and acoustic amplitudes, peak frequency, positive phase duration, and the apparent seismic velocity. The presented approach is not limited to a single lithology. Instead, it uses a diverse set of parameters, such as apparent seismic velocity and P-wave peak frequency, to implicitly identify the medium properties within the data-driven framework. Incorporating these parameters resulted in significant improvement of the method performance for both scaled depth and yield estimates. The root mean square error of the scaled depth estimate is on the order of 0.1 m/kg1/3. For the yield estimate, the mean absolute percentage error is less than 10% for both training and validation datasets. The main challenge of using machine learning for yield estimate is a small number of calibration explosions with known yields available for the ANN training. In the future, the developed approach can be further improved by training the ANNs with larger datasets, as more explosion data become available.
... Explosion yield estimation based on seismic data (ground motion in the near field) is one common approach to estimate near-surface explosion yield [1][2][3][4][5][6] . Its prediction accuracy has a close relation with geological characteristics [7][8][9][10][11] , explosion source buried depth [3,5,10,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . ...
... Explosion yield estimation based on seismic data (ground motion in the near field) is one common approach to estimate near-surface explosion yield [1][2][3][4][5][6] . Its prediction accuracy has a close relation with geological characteristics [7][8][9][10][11] , explosion source buried depth [3,5,10,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . Coupled seismic waves (ground motion) of near-surface explosions show significantly different energy under different geological characteristics and explosion source buried depths. ...
... Coupled seismic waves (ground motion) of near-surface explosions show significantly different energy under different geological characteristics and explosion source buried depths. Studies have shown that different types of rock and soil medium such as saturated soil [12] , alluvium [3,10] , sandy clay [13] , concrete [14,15] , limestone [16,17] and granite [5] have different coupling coefficients. Relative to soft rock medium, hard rock medium coupling coefficient undergoes steeper changes with buried depth [19] . ...
Explosion yield estimation based on seismic data (ground motion in the near field) is one common approach to estimate near-surface explosion yield. The near-surface yield estimation models of different site media are usually established through chemical explosion experiments. However, the site media of current chemical explosion experiments are mainly soil and hard rock, lacking the experiment data and yield estimation model of soil-rock-mixture site. To solve the above problem, the seismic (ground motion) data of chemical explosion experiments at different depths in soil-rock-mixture site were gathered to establish the near-surface yield estimation model for soil-rock-mixture site. Besides, analysis was made regarding yield estimation accuracy and effects of rock-soil types on accuracy. The results show that the rock-soil type has great influence on the yield estimation accuracy of near-surface explosions, and the near-surface yield estimation model of soil-rock-mixture site has high accuracy in estimating explosion yield.
