Remote seismic station in the Northern Territory plays critical role in monitoring North Korea’s nuclear testing

Remote Territory seismic station watching for nuclear blasts from North Korea http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/remote-territory-seismic-station-watching-for-nuclear-blasts-from-north-korea/news-story/d696b147566d46828b05a2a4357a7e00 GARY SHIPWAY, NT News October 18, 2017 A LESSER-known remote seismic station in the Northern Territory is playing a critical role in keeping an eye on North Korea and its nuclear testing.

The Warramunga Seismic and Infrasound Research Station is 35km to the southeast of the township of Tennant Creek and monitors any signs of nuclear activity across the globe.

It has recorded all of North Korea’s nuclear tests.

The seismic station has been designated as a primary station for both seismic and infrasound in the International Monitoring System for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Its seismometers are spread across 20sq km of land highlighted by scrub and granite outcrops. It is also equipped with infrasound sensors, which pick up atmospheric waves from blasts in the air.Warramunga’s work doesn’t just include nuclear blasts. It also monitors earthquakes and storms.

ANU’s Dr Michelle Salmon said Warramunga was manned by a small team from the Australian National University’s Research School of Earth Sciences and was one of 321 monitoring stations around the world.

“The station is considered one of the best in the world for recording nuclear blasts because of its quiet site and because it is manned 24/7,” she explained.

“When we are recording nuclear blasts from a long distance away the signals are very small. That explosion will create waves that travel out from that explosion and as that wave travels past Tennant Creek you will actually see the ground move up and down or sideways and that’s what we record.We have people living there and this means we can deal with problems that occur immediately.

“Our station is part of a big word wide community that is trying to monitor and make sure that we know what’s going on around the world.

“You can’t explode a large nuclear weapon around the world and not let someone know about it.

“We know where and we know when a blast happens. We really know how big they are getting.”

The data Warramunga records appears on monitors inside a reinforced demountable and is passed by satellite to United Nations scientists in Vienna for analysis.