FORENSIC SEISMOLOGY
Abstract
Seismological stations detect not only earthquakes, blasting in quarries or for construction purposes, and rock bursts caused by mining, but also other unforeseen and rare events, where due to the explosion or impact seismic and acoustic waves are generated. By their registration and analysis, known as forensic seismology, we can rapidly determine what happened and where, when and how strong it was, supplementing other observations. The most important of these events is the monitoring of underground nuclear tests; because they are banned, almost no other data is available. They are followed by chemical explosions due to accidents in factories, related to unexploded ordnance from past wars, or due to terrorist attacks. Among the biggest was the explosion of the warehouse full of ammonium nitrate in Beirut port, and the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, which was accompanied by two strong explosions. The recent sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea has also attracted attention. There have also been some cases of seismic observations of large gas pipeline explosive accidents on shore. Examples of seismic detections of aircraft crashes or collisions of large ships with the shore are very rare.
Forensic seismological analyses enable especially rapid determination of the location and magnitude of explosive
or impact events.
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