Posted on 09/05/2017 12:01:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The mountain where North Korea likely conducted its five most recent nuclear bomb tests could be at risk of collapse, potentially releasing radiation into the atmosphere, according to Chinese experts who measured shock waves caused by the blasts. Scientists from the seismic and deep earth physics laboratory at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhu province, believe the most recent tests were carried out under a mountain at North Korea's Punggye-ri test site, according to a statement published on their website.
The group's leader, geophysicist Wen Lianxing, believes the margin of error for their prediction to be no more than 100 meters, citing data collected by more than 100 earthquake monitoring sites.
The data set includes an earthquake which was registered eight minutes after North Korea's latest launch on Sunday, which Chinese authorities deemed a cave-in triggered by the explosion.
According to Wen's team, the energy released in Sunday’s test was about 108.3 kilotons of TNT, or 7.8 times the amount released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, by the US in 1945. It far surpassed all previous bombs tested by Pyongyang.
However, a team of scientists in Norway estimated the bomb was even more powerful, as much as 10 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.
The Chinese team's findings, if accurate, could mean a major environmental disaster is on its way, with the next test potentially causing the entire mountain to cave in on itself, according to Wang Naiyan, the former chairman of the China Nuclear Society and a senior researcher on China's nuclear weapons program.
That would leave a hole venting radiation across the entire region.
“We call it ‘taking the roof off’. If the mountain collapses and the hole is exposed, it will let out many bad things," Wang said
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
“If the bombs were planted at the bottom of vertically drilled tunnels, the explosion would do less damage,” he said.
However, such a scenario is unlikely, due to the fact that such tunnels are expensive and difficult to build. It's much easier, Wang said, to build a horizontal tunnel into the heart of the mountain - which increases the risk of "taking the roof off" the mountain.
Would not surprised mw.
oops, sorry...forgot to preview and resize the picture before posting
didn’t mean to post an eleventybillion pixel graphic
my apologies
The world has survived 520 above-ground nuclear blasts and another 800 underground tests in the last 70 years. The most lethal radioactives go inert the fastest. If/when the roof caves in on the North Korean mountain, only a few dribbles will escape, and the prevailing winds will probably take those dribbles out to sea. You’ll get more extra radiation by going to Denver for a day.
What would be even better would be the next DPRK missile test going off course, self-destructing, with the bits raining down on Northeast China.
That might help clarify China’s position somewhat.
BETTER CALL DECON!
CRY ME A RIVER!
Yep, those overly worried about radioactivity need to get a half-life.
Seems to me that a big red “X” should now be on this mountain as a potential prime target for US bombers and or missiles. Spread the love!!!
Hey China, save face, Nuke Kim and tell the world be blew himself up, we will go along with it.
Sickly, better them than us, serious.
Godzilla is huge and deserves a huge picture to show his magnificence.
Godzilla deserves it.
Dang, 11 secs!
Can’t Kim Fat Ass just wave his magical, god-like weener and make the radiation go away? Shoo-shoo radiation. You go now. I understand they say crops bloom if he just walks thru a field.
Well, well the official spelling troll of FR is here.
ENJOY going crazy over my spelling errors. SARC.
Perhaps you should try writing English.
Why do you make such a big deal over spelling errors?
I do not make any big deal about it and neither should you.
Actually, I’m surprised that all of the NK nuke tests have been underground. One would think that Fat Boy, with his penchant for bluster, would light one off at the surface just so the world could see the mushroom cloud.
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