Underground Nukes Leave Traceable Uplift

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Surface rock above a nuclear test will expand enough to trackable by radar satellites. Christopher Intagliata reports.

January 12, 2012

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If a country wants to keep a nuclear bomb test secret, it?ll probably do it deep underground. But even if you bury the bomb, some clues will reach the surface. So says a study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. [P. Vincent et al, Anomalous transient uplift observed at the Lop Nor, China nuclear test site using satellite radar interferometry timeseries analysis]

Scientists analyzed radar satellite data of a spot in western China, where three nukes were detonated underground in the ?90s. And they found that after the blasts, the land above the test chambers gradually swelled one inch higher in elevation.

Here?s why: shock waves from the explosion left cracks in rock near the surface. Years later, plumes of underground water, still steamy from the blast, trickled up and infiltrated those cracks,? causing the rock to expand and rise?forensic evidence that could be used to infer the bomb?s explosive energy.

The International Atomic Energy Agency won?t be busting nuclear rebels with this method any time soon?it took four years for this bulge in the Chinese desert to appear. But since seismic analysis?the other tool for studying bomb blasts?can be foiled by a cleverly designed detonation chamber, this trick gives nuclear detectives one more way to study blasts from the past.

?Christopher Intagliata

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]?
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