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<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>North Korea on Sunday set off a nuclear blast under a mountain.</strong></li><li><strong>The test was part of leader Kim Jong Un's campaign to make a "city busting" weapon small enough to fit on a rocket.</strong></li><li><strong>Differing seismic measurements and other factors make it difficult to pin down the strength of the blast from afar.</strong></li><li><strong>A thermonuclear bomb may have caused the explosion, as North Korea claims, but other types of atomic bombs may explain its strength.</strong></li><li><strong>Experts are concerned North Korea may soon have a deliverable nuclear weapon if a diplomatic agreement isn't created. </strong></li></ul><p>Deep inside a North Korean mountain on September 3, the government of leader Kim Jong Un set off its largest-ever nuclear test blast.</p><p>The explosion occurred at the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, a series of tunnels located <a href="https://sketchfab.com/models/f12664b12b4e43bab9460d141055fb1b" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">within Mount Mantap</a> where the so-called Democratic People's Republic of Korea has detonated at least five other nuclear devices.</p><p>Early estimates suggest the blast yielded the energy of <a href="https://www.nknews.org/pro/n-koreas-big-device-reveal-and-sixth-nuclear-test-what-the-open-source-data-reveals/">at least 60 kilotons' worth of TNT</a>, according to NK News, though perhaps <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-thermonuclear-icbm-changes-the-game-2017-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more than 100 kilotons' worth</a>, according to 38 North. Other estimates suggest the blast yielded 300 kilotons or perhaps up to 500 kilotons, though that's less likely.</p><p>For reference, 100 kilotons is at least twice as energetic as North Korea's previous and formerly most-powerful nuclear test. It's also seven times the yield of the US bomb detonated over Hiroshima that caused some <a href="http://www.aasc.ucla.edu/cab/200708230009.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">150,000 casualties</a>.</p><p>While 100 kilotons may not seem like much today - both the US and the then-Soviet Union have detonated <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-bomb-accident-goldsboro-nc-swamp-2017-5">thermonuclear bombs</a> devices that exploded with <em>millions</em> or megatons' worth of TNT - experts believe it shows North Korea is at least on the path to building such powerful weapons.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>"[T]his test demonstrated that North Korea has attained the technical capability to produce a nuclear weapon whose yield corroborates their claims of having a thermonuclear weapon," <a href="http://www.nonproliferation.org/experts/david-schmerler/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dave Schmerler</a>, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, wrote <a href="https://www.nknews.org/pro/n-koreas-big-device-reveal-and-sixth-nuclear-test-what-the-open-source-data-reveals/">for NK News</a> on Tuesday.<p>What's more, the test suggests North Korea is one step closer to fitting a usable warhead on top of an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-intercontinental-ballistic-missiles-work-north-korea-2017-7">intercontinental ballistic missile</a> - a rocket that's capable of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korean-nuclear-strike-united-states-arrival-times-2017-8">reaching the continental US</a>, and which the nation is expected to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-expected-icbm-launch-full-range-september-9-2017-9">test-launch this weekend</a>.</p><h2>How to measure a nuclear blast deep inside a mountain</h2><p>Subterranean blasts can <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/satellite-images-north-korea-nuclear-test-site-could-collapse-2017-9">trigger landslides visible from space</a>, an effect made clear by historical footage of subterranean nuclear tests. (Nearly all nuclear tests moved underground in the 1960s due to concerns about <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-survive-nuclear-attack-fallout-radiation-2017-6">radioactive fallout</a>.) Rare gases created during a blast can also <a href="http://www.ctbto.org/verification-regime/monitoring-technologies-how-they-work/radionuclide-monitoring/">leak out of the ground</a> and be "sniffed" by sensors at a distance.</p><p>But these lines of evidence don't betray an explosion's size.</p><p><br>To do that, scientists rely on the small earthquakes hidden nuclear blasts cause. These tremors move through the Earth's rock, are detectable all over the world, and get picked up by vibration-sensing devices called seismometers.</br></p><p>That doesn't mean coming up with an agreed-upon <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk2/1988/8838/8838.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">estimate of an underground test blast's strength</a> is easy.</p><p>One issue is that seismic measurements of a blast aren't the same from one site to the next. For example, the South Korean government measured a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/03/north-korea-nuclear-test-what-we-know-so-far">magnitude 5.6 earthquake</a> from the blast, while seismometers operated by Japan's Meteorological Agency detected a <a href="http://www.abc2news.com/news/national/north-korea-tests-most-powerful-nuclear-bomb-yet?page=2">magnitude 6.1 earthquake</a>.</p><p>That means Japan detected an earthquake three times more powerful than the one detected by South Korea, even though Japan is located hundreds of miles further away from the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site. The US Geological Survey, meanwhile, detected a magnitude-6.3 earthquake - five times stronger than a magnitude-5.6 quake - from thousands of miles away.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>A few things explain these differences.</p><p>Earthquakes travel through different types of rock between the source of a blast and a seismometer, which can give different magnitudes, as can the noise of mining operations and natural earthquakes. (Small earthquakes occur hundreds of times a day.) And monitoring stations aren't all the same; some use just a few seismometers, while others use many in an array.</p><p>Also, researchers can use several earthquake signals and plug the data into different formulas, each of which give different answers. Given the secrecy of Kim Jong Un's regime, exact information about a blast's depth, the size of the rock chamber it blew up inside, and the surrounding geology aren't readily available (at least publicly).</p><p>This leads to guessing some variables and a sometimes wild range of estimates that researchers <a href="https://twitter.com/ArmsControlWonk/status/904431967847931904">don't always agree on</a>.</p><p>Merging many readings leads to better estimates, however, and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization operates a network of 170 seismic monitoring stations around the world. Fifty stations continuously monitor for nuclear-test earthquakes and beam that data to the organization's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, via satellite.</p><p><br>The CTBTO settled on a roughly magnitude-6.0 tremor this week.</br></p><p>"A magnitude 6 compared to a magnitude 5.1, in 2016, if you take it and look at it in scale, and just use Hiroshima in comparison, I think we're talking about a detonation that is 10 to 20 times bigger," Lassina Zerbo, the executive secretary of the CTBTO's Preparatory Commission, said in <a href="https://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2017/09/north-korea-nuclear-test-last-wake-up-call-to-the-world-cbtbo-chief/">a United Nations podcast</a>.</p><p>This puts the yield of the blast somewhere around 150 kilotons, or perhaps as high as 300 kilotons. "This is a key indication that things are progressing," Zerbo added.</p><h2>North Korean super nukes?</h2><p>But was it a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-thermonuclear-icbm-changes-the-game-2017-9">"city-busting" thermonuclear blast</a>, as North Korea has claimed?</p><p>There are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nuclear-weapons-work-2016-1">a few main types of nuclear weapons</a>, any of which could explain the explosion's wide-ranging size: fission, boosted fission, and thermonuclear (also called hydrogen or fusion) bombs.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Fission bombs - the type dropped on Japan in 1945 - yield the smallest explosions. Yet building a very large fission bomb can yield a larger explosion, perhaps around <a href="http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/Allbombs.html#MK-18" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">500 kilotons</a>, as was the case in the US military's 1952 Ivy King test.</p><p>However, it's unlikely North Korea blew up a large pure-fission bomb. The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-big-win-china-sanctions-un-north-korea-2017-8">sanction-shackled country</a> has a limited ability to produce weapons-grade nuclear material, so every ounce of it is precious and unlikely to be wasted on a test, even though production has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-koreas-nuclear-weapons-program-is-booming-2015-2">ramped up in recent years</a>.</p><p>What's more likely is that North Korea detonated a "boosted" fission device, as experts believe the nation <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/06/north-korean-nuclear-test-suspected-as-artificial-earthquake-detected" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">detonated in January 2016</a>.</p><p>Boosted weapons amplify a fission bomb's yield by packing it with some "heavy" hydrogen. During an explosion, this hydrogen partly undergoes fusion - the same process that powers the sun - and increases the amount of energy released by weapons-grade plutonium and uranium.</p><p>Boosted bombs can also be built large to increase yield (<a href="http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Uk/UKTesting.html">up to 720 kilotons</a>, as with Great Britain's "Orange Herald" test), but again: North Korea is not swimming in a supply of weapons-ready uranium and plutonium.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Thermonuclear bombs can yield tens of kilotons to hundreds of megatons of energy, but are <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/09/the-credible-visible-h-bomb/538863/">extremely difficult to make correctly</a>. This is because they're essentially two bombs in one: a "boosted" fission bomb, which releases a blast of powerful X-ray radiation, and a fusion bomb that's set off by the first explosion's X-rays. (Since X-rays travel at light-speed, the second bomb can blow up before the first's slower-moving shockwave can rip it apart.)<p>A yield of 60 to 300 kilotons on September 3 suggests at least a boosted fission device, but perhaps a small, missile-ready thermonuclear warhead, as North Korea has claimed and showed alleged photos of.</p><p>Determining the type of bomb North Korea detonated and its yield is important, but what the government's latest and greatest test represents is enough to worry many experts - thermonuclear weapon or not.</p><p>"What is important is that North Korea isn't content to settle for a crude nuclear program," <a href="http://www.miis.edu/about/newsroom/experts/jlewis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jeffrey Lewis</a>, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-nuclear-test-experts-worried-2016-1">told Tech </a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-nuclear-test-experts-worried-2016-1">Insider</a> via email in 2016. "They want an arsenal of relatively advanced nuclear weapons."</p><p>Zerbo thinks a diplomatic effort like the one that the Obama administration used to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-obama-issues-warning-on-1st-anniversary-of-iran-nuclear-deal-2017-1">shutter Iran's nuclear weapons program</a> is worth trying.</p><p>"[W]e cannot let this program go on. It would jeopardize the whole arms control and non-proliferation regime as a whole," he said. "People will say, 'If North Korea can do it, and then nothing happens, then why not us?' That's a risk that we might see in this world, and that's a risk that is unacceptable."</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:calc(100% / 1.33)"></div></div><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:54%"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-bunkers-nuclear-missile-war-hydrogen-fallout-radiation-attack-2017-6">These are the secret bunkers government officials will go to in the event of an attack</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Why North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test may have been a game-changing explosion

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>SEOUL, South <span>Korea</span> (AP) - South Korean officials detected an "artificial earthquake" near <span>North</span>&#xa0;<span>Korea's</span> main nuclear testing site on Wednesday, a strong indication that the nuclear-armed country had conducted its fourth atomic test.<p>The U.S Geological Survey measured the magnitude of the seismic activity at 5.1 on its website. An official from the&#xa0;<span>Korea</span> Metrological Administration, South <span>Korea's</span> weather agency, said it believed the earthquake was caused artificially, without elaborating, and originated 49 kilometers (30 miles) <span>north</span> of Kilju, the northeastern area where&#xa0;<span>North</span>&#xa0;<span>Korea's</span> main nuclear test site is located. The country conducted all three previous atomic detonations there.</p><p>The agency measured the magnitude of the seismic activity at 5.1 on its website on Wednesday.</p><p><span>"We suspect a man-made earthquake and are analyzing the scale and epicenter of the quake with the geoscience and mineral resource institute of South Korea," a Korea Meteorological Administration official told Reuters.</span></p><p>South Korean government officials didn't immediately respond to calls looking to determine whether a nuclear blast or natural earthquake had taken place in the North.</p><p><span>North</span>&#xa0;<span>Korea</span> conducted its third nuclear test in February 2013. A confirmed test would mark another big step toward Pyongyang's goal of building a warhead small enough to be mounted on a missile capable of reaching mainland America's shores.</p><p>A test would further <span>North</span>&#xa0;<span>Korea's</span> international isolation by prompting a push for new, tougher sanctions at the United Nations and worsening Pyongyang's already bad ties with Washington and its neighbors.</p><p>Pyongyang is thought to have a handful of crude nuclear weapons. The United States and its allies worry about<span>North</span> Korean nuclear tests because each new blast brings the country closer to perfecting its nuclear arsenal.</p><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;<span>Reuters reported earlier today that in December&#xa0;</span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missile-idUSKBN0UK02P20160106">North Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile</a><span>.</span></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;</p><p>&#xa0;</p>

A mysterious 'artificial' earthquake was just detected near a North Korea nuke-test site

<div type="image" title="A screengrab from a video show people sitting on the ground that is cracked in a city in Japan after an earthquake hit Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan." height="2447" width="3263" msid="106454103" hostid="261"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Japan issued tsunami alerts after a series of powerful earthquakes.</li><li>Quakes hit from 2 a.m. ET Monday off the coast of Ishikawa, one of them with a magnitude of 7.6.</li></ul><p>Japan has issued <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jma.go.jp/bosai/map.html#5/39.079/136.846/&amp;elem=warn&amp;contents=tsunami&amp;lang=en">tsunami warnings and evacuation orders</a> after a series of powerful earthquakes hit the country overnight, destroying buildings and disrupting electricity and cellphone services.</p><p>Waves could reach up to about 10 feet (five meters), according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, which urged people to flee to high land.</p><p>Japanese public broadcaster NHK TV had previously reported waves were expected to reach up to 16.5 feet (five meters), but the predictions have now been downgraded. Evacuation orders are still in effect, per NHK TV.</p><p>"We realize your home, your belongings are all precious to you, but your lives are important above everything else. Run to the highest ground possible," an NHK presenter said, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67855990">BBC</a>.</p><p>It comes after the Japan Meteorological Agency reported 21 earthquakes registering 4.0 magnitude or stronger struck central Japan in just over 90 minutes on Monday. One of them had an estimated magnitude of 7.6.</p><p>Videos broadcast on Japanese TV appear to show cracks in roads, subway trains shaking and buildings collapsing.</p><p>The agency added there is a 10 to 20% chance more earthquakes of similar magnitude could hit within the next few days.</p><div type="image" title="a map shows areas that are under tsunami warning in Japan on January 1." height="1144" width="2356" msid="106455234" hostid="261" sizebytes="85816"></div><p>Japan has a history of devastating tsunamis. A<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-show-damage-of-japans-2011-disaster-2016-3"> tsunami</a> that hit Japan in 2011 following a 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and the death of more than <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" href="https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-fukushima-nuclear-cleanup-20150311-story.html"><u>18,000 people.</u></a></p><p>Waves during that tsunami reached heights up to almost 130 feet.</p><p>Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said that nuclear plants in the area had not yet reported any problems. He added that it was critical for people in coastal areas to get away from the oncoming tsunami.</p><p>"Every minute counts. Please evacuate to a safe area immediately," he said.</p><p>The city of Wajima in Ishikawa prefecture has already reported tsunami waves of almost four feet, according to NHK. Toyama prefecture, and Kashiwazaki, Niigata prefecture, also reported smaller tsunami waves.</p><p>Warnings of waves up to a meter three feet high were also issued for parts of North Korea and Russia. Russian officials issued a tsunami alert for the island of Sakhalin.</p><p>Officials of Ishikawa Prefecture's Suzu City have confirmed that several houses and power poles have been brought down by a local earthquake, which registered at 7.4 in magnitude, <a target="_blank" href="https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240101_18/">per NKH TV</a>.</p><p>Around 33,000 households are without power with temperatures forecast to drop to 33 degrees Fahrenheit, NKH TV reported.</p><p>Six people are thought to be stuck under rubble in collapsed houses on the Noto Peninsula, and no information has been released on their condition, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jan/01/japan-tsunami-earthquake-warning-latest-updates-live#maincontent">per The Guardian</a>. Multiple people were also reported to be trapped in collapsed houses in Suzu, Ishikawa, per NHK TV.</p><p>Meanwhile, a fire has broken out in Wajima City, per The Guardian.</p><p>Small tsunami waves are common and cause little damage, but any waves with runups over one meter (3.28 feet) can be particularly dangerous to people living near coastal areas, per the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/tsunamis/tsunami-dangers">US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website</a>.</p><p>The force of the waves themselves can cause substantial damage, but tsunamis are also dangerous because they cause flooding, erosion, and strong currents that can drag people out to sea. They can also bring in floating debris like trees and cars, that can act like battering rams, per NOAA.</p><p>The Japan Meteorological Agency had previously issued a "major tsunami warning" for Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, warning of waves as high as 16 feet. This has since been downgraded to a "tsunami warning."</p><p><em>Update January 1, 2023: The story has been updated to reflect the latest advisory from the Japanese Meteorological Agency. Tsunami waves are now expected to hit 10 feet (3 meters) in height, rather than 16 feet. </em></p>

Japan is bracing for a tsunami with waves as high as 10 feet after more than 20 earthquakes hit in just over 90 minutes

You Searched For "korea meteorological administration" and got 3 results

Why North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test may have been a game-changing explosion

Dave Mosher

A mysterious 'artificial' earthquake was just detected near a North Korea nuke-test site

Associated Press,Harrison Jac…

Japan is bracing for a tsunami with waves as high as 10 feet after more than 20 earthquakes hit in just over 90 minutes

Marianne Guenot

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