USGS automated site now showing a small quake in NK | Prelim. yield est.

[Ediacara]

USGS calls it a M_w 4.2.

This curiously showed up about three hours after the test supposedly happened (9:36 PM eastern).

VERY SKETCHY ESTIMATE OF YIELD

According to Wiki's page on the Moment magnitude scale, the relative yield of a nuclear weapon can be determined based on the moment magnitude using the following equation (be sure to read the caveats on the page, this arithmatic is FAR from set in stone):



4.2 = (2/3)(log₁₀(m_TNT/kg))
6.3 = (log₁₀(m_TNT/kg))
1,995,262kg = m_TNT

So it looks to be roughly 2.0kt

Please check this site for a comparison or various nuclear weapons. This one (if I am doing my math correctly, and if the caveats to the equation hold true) does not appear to be that big.

[Subdivisions]

1. Not good...not good at all. This has the potential for huge

and profound consequences. What will happen next?

[Taoschick]

2. Nothing

North Korea is going to do whatever the hell it wants.

[Toucano]

3. Actually, I don't find the delay that unusual.

Remember, it's the USGS.

Resources are not evenly spread throughout the world, and I've often seen a delay in reporting on international events.

I think I may have even been the first one to report an earthquake to them once.

[lonestarnot]

4. Amazing we could be so advanced and yet so slow and behind.

[Ediacara]

5. These are automated pages

They should update in seconds, not hours

[htuttle]

7. What do you suppose accounts for the delay?

Could there be reasonable explanations for it, beyond any expected politicizations of the USGS? Is it possible that the data was withheld for a time, either by the US or SK, or that, for some reason, the globally linked sensors didn't detect it, yet more strategically placed, non-linked SK sensors did? I have seen absolutely no reports of gamma ray emissions detected, btw.

I'm asking you, because I've learned that if DinoBoy knows anything, it's rocks!

[Ediacara]

11. Who knows...

It could have been withheld by the South Koreans, the USGS, the CIA, or the seismologiust called into work in the middle of the night.

[Toucano]

9. It should update with what?

Do you think they've got seismographs spaced every 10 meters all over the globe that report directly to their website?

It doesn't happen that way.

Delays like this are not uncommon.

[Rex]

6. A man made 4.2 earthquake is not a small thing.

A natural 4.2 is nothing to sneeze at. What do China and Japan say?

[lonestarnot]

8. Haven't heard yet.

[Rex]

10. So it was 10 times weaker than the ones used in WWII?

Fat Man yield was 21 kilotons.

[Ediacara]

12. It appears that way, again IF and only IF

the caveats on wiki's page hold true.

[Rex]

13. Yeah I try to never use wiki, but I don't know anything about the math.

Thanks.

[Ediacara]

14. On straight science, wiki seems ok

politics and pop-culture get vandalized, but arcane science rarely if ever does.