Regional Seismic Threshold Monitoring

• Main Authors: Kvaerna, Tormod, Mykkeltveit, Svein, Hicks, Erik, Ringdal, Frode, Schweitzer, Johannes
• Other Authors: NORWEGIAN SEISMIC ARRAY (NORSAR) KJELLER
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2001
• Subjects: Seismology; Computer Programming and Software; Seismic Detection and Detectors; *SEISMIC DETECTION; *DATA PROCESSING; *SEISMIC ARRAYS; WAVEFORMS; EXPLOSIONS; SEISMIC DATA; MIDATLANTIC RIDGE; NORWAY; UNDERWATER EXPLOSIONS; BARENTS SEA; SUBMARINES; ACCIDENTS; KARA SEA; MONITORING; SYMPOSIA; DATA BASES; EARTHQUAKES; *SEISMIC REGIONALIZATION; *THRESHOLD MONITORING; FOREIGN REPORTS; SUBMARINE KURSK ACCIDENT AREA; MINING BLASTS; THREE-COMPONENT STATIONS; STATION MAGNITUDES; NOVAYA ZEMLYA ARCHIPELAGO; Amderma; Apatity; Barents Sea; Kara Sea; Kola Peninsula; Norway; Svalbard; kola peninsula; Northern Norway; Novaya Zemlya; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA525937; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA525937

Beginning in September 2000, a large number of small seismic events has been detected in the area near the accident of the submarine Kursk. According to an official Russian announcement, these were underwater explosions carried out by the Russian Navy. This explosion sequence, with numerous explosions ranging in magnitude from very small (about 1.0 on the Richter scale) to fairly large (about magnitude 2.5), provides a unique opportunity to investigate the performance of the threshold monitoring technique. We have thus implemented an experimental site-specific threshold monitoring procedure to monitor the Kursk accident area in the Barents Sea, which has proved to be an efficient tool for revealing small events in this region. As an integral part of our work to develop an optimized, automatic capability to monitor the seismicity of Novaya Zemlya and adjacent waters of the Kara and Barents Seas, a database of records from seismic events in the area has been compiled, based on information contained in bulletins published by various agencies. The database comprises records from 43 events, carefully selected so as to cover the area with ray paths in the best possible way. Since the major part of the area under study is basically aseismic, the majority of the events in this database is confined to Svalbard, the western Barents Sea, northern Norway, the Kola Peninsula and Novaya Zemlya. The events are earthquakes, mining blasts, other chemical and nuclear explosions, and some are of unknown nature. Magnitudes range from 2 to 4.5, except for two nuclear explosions with magnitudes exceeding 5. Records have been compiled from the ARCES, FINES, NORES, Apatity and Spitsbergen arrays and from the Amderma 3-component station, and have been supplemented by waveforms for KBS, KEV and LVZ requested from Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). Presented at the Seismic Research Review: Worldwide Monitoring of Nuclear Explosions (23rd) held in Jackson Hole, WY on 2-5 October 2001. Published in the Proceedings of the Seismic Research Review: Worldwide Monitoring of Nuclear Explosions (23rd), p199-208, 2001. The original document contains color images.