A New Experimental Field Study of the Effects of Explosive Detonation Products on Seismic Radiation

Stroujkova, Anastasia; Leidig, Mark; Lewkowicz, James F.; Rath, Timothy; Bradstreet, T.; Napoli, V. di; Hubbard, Peter; Salerno, J.; Robbins, K.; Marrero, C.

doi:10.1785/0220170032

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Site T4 also exhibits the fastest rate of growth of the

C_{{SF}_{6}} / C_{Xe}

ratios as a function of the measured SF 6 concentration. It is important to notice that T4 is situated above another blasthole (Shot SH2) (Stroujkova et al, ) with a similar cavity at the bottom. Therefore, the higher tracer ratio can be explained by higher amount of water available for dissolution at that location, resulting in further depletion of the gas phase in Xe and enrichment in SF 6 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several chemical explosions were conducted in the quarry between 2016 and 2018 to study the effect of the explosive types on explosion source phenomenology. The injection was performed on 31 October 2018 using the borehole where the chemical explosion was detonated in 2016 as a part of the GAS2016 experiment (e.g., Stroujkova et al, 2017) and designated Shot SH1 (Figure 1). For the GAS2016 experiment, the cylindrical Trinitrotoluene (TNT) charge with the yield of 63.2 kg was detonated at the bottom of a borehole (12.95 m in depth and 25 cm in diameter).…”

Section: Injection Borehole Preparation and Site Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several explosions were conducted at the site prior to the injection (e.g., Stroujkova et al, 2017), which lead to creation of a localized fracture network. Hydrogeological studies conducted in the injection borehole (e.g., Avendano et al, 2018) have shown that the formation permeability increased after the explosions by roughly 2 orders of magnitude from 10 −12 -10 −14 m 2 to 10 −10 -10 −12 m 2 .…”

Section: Injection Borehole Preparation and Site Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using SF₆ and Xe to Monitor Gas Migration Through Explosion‐Generated Fracture Networks

et al. 2020

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We describe a field study where tracer gas was injected into a subsurface cavity created by a small chemical explosion beneath the water table. The main objective of the study is to compare the migration of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and xenon (Xe) through an explosion‐generated fracture network and to study the influence of ground water on gas transport. A mixture of tracer gases (50% of SF6 and 50% of Xe) was injected on 31 October 2018 and gas sampling continued until 8 November 2018. We observe similar trends in SF6 and Xe concentrations at four ground surface sampling sites. The changes in the SF6/Xe ratios with time show that more SF6 than Xe is observed during the barometric pressure lows when the absolute measured concentrations are highest. Conversely, the ratio SF6/Xe is less than 1 during the high‐pressure intervals when absolute measured concentrations are low. The results of the experiment suggest that during barometric pressure lows the tracer is migrating to the surface primarily by advective gas phase transport, whereas during barometric pressure highs, advection is suppressed and near‐surface evaporation of interstitial pore fluid with tracer dissolved in it becomes more important. Thus, the results of the experiment show that the gas concentrations at the surface are controlled by the combined effects of the gas dissolution into pore water and the barometric pressure fluctuations.

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“…Site T4 also exhibits the fastest rate of growth of the

C_{{SF}_{6}} / C_{Xe}

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Injection Borehole Preparation and Site Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Injection Borehole Preparation and Site Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using SF₆ and Xe to Monitor Gas Migration Through Explosion‐Generated Fracture Networks

et al. 2020

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“…This indicates that chemical explosives are a useful analog for understanding the rock damage following an underground nuclear explosion [11]. Modeling and experiments have been used in recent years to better understand seismic wave generation [12][13][14] gas transport [15], and rock damage [16][17][18], following underground chemical explosions. Because there are considerable differences between a nuclear and chemical explosive source, there are expected differences in the behavior of gas transport.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fracture Network Influence on Rock Damage and Gas Transport following an Underground Explosion

Stansberry,

Sweeney,

Hyman

et al. 2024

Geotechnics

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Simulations of rock damage and gas transport following underground explosions that omit preexisting fracture networks in the subsurface cannot fully characterize the influence of geo-structural variability on gas transport. Previous studies do not consider the impact that fracture network structure and variability have on gas seepage. In this study, we develop a sequentially coupled, axi-symmetric model to look at the damage pattern and resulting gas breakthrough curves following an underground explosion given different fracture network realizations. We simulate 0.327 and 0.164 kT chemical explosives with burial depths of 100 m for 90 stochastically generated fracture networks. Gases quickly reach the surface in 30% of the higher yield simulations and 5% of the lower yield simulations. The fast breakthrough can be attributed to the formation of connected pathways between fractures to the surface. The formation of a connected damage pathway to the surface is not clearly correlated with the fracture intensity (P32) in our simulations. Breakthrough curves with slower transport are highly variable depending on the fracture network sample. The variability in the breakthrough behavior indicates that ignoring the influence of fracture networks on rock damage, which strongly influences the hydraulic properties following an underground explosion, will likely lead to a large underestimation of the uncertainty in the gas transport to the surface. This work highlights the need for incorporation of fracture networks into models for accurately predicting gas seepage following underground explosions.

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“…Since NKTS is an uncalibrated test site, there is considerable uncertainty to the seismic‐based absolute explosion magnitude and, particularly, the absolute yield of the North Korean tests. Multiple, poorly constrained factors influence measurement of the absolute size of these tests, including the conversion of underground explosion energy to elastic (seismic) energy (i.e., degree of “coupling,” Patterson, 1966; Stroujkova, 2015; Stroujkova et al., 2017), details of the host emplacement rock (Yang, 2016; Stroujkova & Morozov, 2014), and near‐source to regional attenuation in both the crust and upper mantle (Ichinose et al., 2014; Olsen et al., 2018). The conversion of these magnitudes to yield introduces significant additional uncertainties and errors (e.g., Murphy, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Source Characterization of the Declared North Korean Nuclear Tests From Regional Distance Coda Wave Spectral Ratios

et al. 2023

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Seismic observations of underground nuclear explosions provide crucial data on source yield and depth that cannot easily be estimated from other geophysical methods. However, it is difficult to obtain reliable yield estimates for test sites for which we do not have direct seismic calibration experiments. To obtain source information from uncalibrated sites and paths, local and regional seismic records of six, proximal, declared underground nuclear explosions in North Korea are used to compute spectral ratios of narrow‐band waveform envelopes of body‐wave coda that remove path and site effects to reveal precise, relative source moment. The yields of these explosions are obtained from the observed source ratios by simultaneously fitting the classical source model of Mueller and Murphy (1971), https://doi.org/10.1785/bssa0610061675 to all event pairs. The source model provides an impressive fit to the observations considering that the P phase coda derived source spectral ratios did not require a prior knowledge of the source or regionally calibrated corrections to be applied to the data. However, the observed corner frequencies from S wave coda spectral ratios are lower than the source model predictions, but are well fit by models calculated using the corner frequency consistent with the Fisk conjecture. The results presented here provide novel constraints on the spectral distributions of the energy radiated by the sources of the DPRK test series, and allows for an independent evaluation of existing estimated source model parameters.

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A New Experimental Field Study of the Effects of Explosive Detonation Products on Seismic Radiation

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Using SF₆ and Xe to Monitor Gas Migration Through Explosion‐Generated Fracture Networks

Using SF₆ and Xe to Monitor Gas Migration Through Explosion‐Generated Fracture Networks

Fracture Network Influence on Rock Damage and Gas Transport following an Underground Explosion

Source Characterization of the Declared North Korean Nuclear Tests From Regional Distance Coda Wave Spectral Ratios

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A New Experimental Field Study of the Effects of Explosive Detonation Products on Seismic Radiation

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Using SF6 and Xe to Monitor Gas Migration Through Explosion‐Generated Fracture Networks

Using SF6 and Xe to Monitor Gas Migration Through Explosion‐Generated Fracture Networks

Fracture Network Influence on Rock Damage and Gas Transport following an Underground Explosion

Source Characterization of the Declared North Korean Nuclear Tests From Regional Distance Coda Wave Spectral Ratios

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Using SF₆ and Xe to Monitor Gas Migration Through Explosion‐Generated Fracture Networks

Using SF₆ and Xe to Monitor Gas Migration Through Explosion‐Generated Fracture Networks