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Would earthquake monitoring systems pick up a nuclear blast?

NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
Interesting thought! My guess is that it would depend on the size of the blast. I can imagine a scenario where Putin uses one (or a few) dial-a-yield type warheads turned all the way down. The point isn't to blow stuff up, it's to clearly communicate "I am willing to use nuclear weapons". In that scenario, would a few kt be enough to set off sensors / be distinguishable from noise? I don't know. Still, a very good idea and worth looking in to.
starwind 5y ago
They do detect underground blasts, and they would probably detect a surface-level explosion as well. The Air Force Technical Applications Center looks at some of that data to determine if a nuclear bomb went off https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Technical_Applications_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Technical_Applicatio...
dragonwriter 5y ago
> Would earthquake monitoring systems pick up a nuclear blast? Yes, but the operator probably wouldn't identify and publish that it was a nuclear blast “within a minute” as the OP desires.
yongjik 5y ago
Seismic waves only propagate at up to ~14 km/s. If New York is bombed, it would take ~5 minutes (I think) for the wave to reach Los Angeles. Twitter would be much faster (assuming Twitter survives the attack).
- NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
  This is also an interesting point! I assume there's a network of monitoring stations all over the world which are hooked up to the internet & other modes of speed-of-light communication. https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~richards/my_papers/Richards&Kim_SciAm_March2009_clean.pdf https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~richards/my_papers/Richards&K... https://www.ctbto.org/verification-regime/monitoring-technologies-how-they-work/seismic-monitoring/ https://www.ctbto.org/verification-regime/monitoring-technol... I can't figure out how to get their data in real time and set up push alerts, though...!

Interesting thought! My guess is that it would depend on the size of the blast. I can imagine a scenario where Putin uses one (or a few) dial-a-yield type warheads turned all the way down. The point isn't to blow stuff up, it's to clearly communicate "I am willing to use nuclear weapons". In that scenario, would a few kt be enough to set off sensors / be distinguishable from noise? I don't know. Still, a very good idea and worth looking in to.

starwind 5y ago

They do detect underground blasts, and they would probably detect a surface-level explosion as well. The Air Force Technical Applications Center looks at some of that data to determine if a nuclear bomb went off https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Technical_Applications_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Technical_Applicatio...

dragonwriter 5y ago

> Would earthquake monitoring systems pick up a nuclear blast? Yes, but the operator probably wouldn't identify and publish that it was a nuclear blast “within a minute” as the OP desires.

yongjik 5y ago

Seismic waves only propagate at up to ~14 km/s. If New York is bombed, it would take ~5 minutes (I think) for the wave to reach Los Angeles. Twitter would be much faster (assuming Twitter survives the attack).

NoImmatureAdHom 5y ago
This is also an interesting point! I assume there's a network of monitoring stations all over the world which are hooked up to the internet & other modes of speed-of-light communication. https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~richards/my_papers/Richards&Kim_SciAm_March2009_clean.pdf https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~richards/my_papers/Richards&K... https://www.ctbto.org/verification-regime/monitoring-technologies-how-they-work/seismic-monitoring/ https://www.ctbto.org/verification-regime/monitoring-technol... I can't figure out how to get their data in real time and set up push alerts, though...!